Fed's Daly: Two More Rate Hikes Likely Needed This Year (Reuters) - San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Mary Daly on Monday repeated that she believes two more rate hikes this year will likely be needed to bring down too-high inflation in the face of a strong labor market. "We're likely to need a couple more rate hikes over the course of this year to really bring inflation" sustainably back to the Fed's 2% goal, Daly said at the Brookings Institution. "We may end up doing less because we need to do less; we may end up doing just that; we could end up doing more. The data will tell us." The risks of doing too little still outweigh the risks of doing too much, she said, but they are coming into better balance, so it's right that the Fed should raise rates more slowly than it did last year to assess how the economy is responding. Daly said that to assess progress she looks not only at published hard data like counts of monthly job gains but also at surveys and her own data-gathering, including Sundays spent at local large retailers, personally interviewing shoppers. Those shoppers, she said, tell her they have plenty of work, but their biggest challenge is that they are less and less able to buy what they need because prices are rising so fast. That said, she said in reference to a conversation with one young man, she wants to make sure that the Fed doesn't go so far in raising rates that it wrecks the labor market. "I don't want to take that young man's job, nor to I want him to have to worry about the price of eggs doubling every time he goes to the market," Daly said.
Inflation Drops to 3% in June — Inflation cooled significantly in June, offering some of the most hopeful news since the Federal Reserve began trying to tame rapid price increases 16 months ago — and boosting the chances that the central bank might be able to stop raising interest rates after its meeting this month.The Consumer Price Index climbed 3 percent in the year through June, according to data released Wednesday, less than the 4 percent increase in the year through May and just a third of its roughly 9 percent peak last summer.That overall measure is being pulled down by big declines in gas prices that could prove ephemeral, which is why policymakers closely watch a more slimmed-down version: the change in prices after stripping out food and fuel costs. That metric, known as the core index, offered news that was even better than what economists had expected.The core index climbed 4.8 percent compared with the previous year, down from 5.3 percent in the year through May. Economists had forecast a 5 percent increase. And on a monthly basis, it climbed at the slowest pace since August 2021.Slower inflation is unquestionably good news, because it allows consumer paychecks to stretch further at the gas pump and in the grocery aisle. And if inflation can come down sustainably without a big increase in unemployment or a painful economic recession, it could allow workers to hang on to the major gains they have made over the past three years: progress toward better jobs and pay that has helped to chip away at income inequality.The White House, which has spent over a year on the defensive over rising prices, celebrated the fresh report, with President Biden calling the current economic moment “Bidenomics in action.” And stocks soared as investors bet that the Fed would be able to be less aggressive in its fight against inflation — even halting its interest rate increases after a final July move — in light of the new data.“This is very promising news,” said Laura Rosner-Warburton, senior economist and founding partner at MacroPolicy Perspectives. “The pieces of the puzzle are starting to come together. But it’s just one report, and the Fed has been burned by inflation before.”Fed officials are likely to avoid declaring victory just yet. Policymakers are still trying to assess whether the moderation is likely to be quick and complete. They do not want to allow price increases to linger at slightly elevated levels for too long, because if they do, consumers and businesses could adjust their behavior in ways that make more rapid inflation a permanent feature of the economy.That’s why officials have signaled in recent weeks that they are likely to raise interest rates at their meeting on July 25 and 26. Policymakers had also indicated that one or more additional rate moves could be warranted after that.“Inflation is too high,” Thomas Barkin, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, said Wednesday in a speech in Maryland, according to Bloomberg. “If you back off too soon, inflation comes back strong, which then requires the Fed to do even more.”But economists and investors saw less of a chance that the Fed would raise rates again later this year in light of the fresh data. Policymakers have already slowed down the pace of rate moves sharply, skipping an adjustment at the June meeting. Assuming they hold off again in September, that could mean it would be November before they have to seriously debate lifting borrowing costs again — and by then, success in tamping down inflation could be clear.
Inflation just fell when rate hikes were paused. So why should the Fed keep hiking? — Inflation cooled for the 12th consecutive month in June, moving to 3% from 4% in May, according to the latest Consumer Price Index data from the Labor Department.But last month’s inflation report was an outlier — for the first time, the declines weren’t immediately preceded by a rate hike from the Federal Reserve. Instead, for the first time in over a year, the central bank said it would hold interest rates steady to learn more about how its cumulative five percentage point rate hike since last March has impacted the economy.But while CPI has cooled, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, the Personal Consumption Expenditures index, shows that inflation is still double its 2% target.So, ahead of its next meeting, on July 25-26, the Fed is trying to figure out how many more rate hikes are needed to get inflation closer to that target.Given the progress that was made in June, could the answer be none? Powell repeatedly stresses that the Fed takes a data-dependent approach to interest rate decisions. “They now have in hand evidence of a slowing labor market, a decline in goods prices excluding food and energy, roughly unchanged prices in an important category of services, and strong evidence of declining shelter inflation on the horizon,” said Wendy Edelberg, director of the Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution. “I think an excellent case can be made for again standing pat at the next meeting,” she told CNN. Fed officials, however, have signaled they’re likely to raise rates by a quarter point at its next meeting. But the looming question is what the Fed should do for the rest of the year. In Schoenholtz’s view, the Fed should continue to hike interest rates even though inflation slowed down sharply in June despite the central bank holding rates steady. The Fed needs people to believe it means business when it comes to its 2% target, he said. Otherwise, people will expect higher levels of inflation and businesses will continue to set prices accordingly. If the Fed waits too long to raise interest rates, it could risk its credibility, leading to a persistently higher price level that’s harder for the Fed to crack down on. The central bank’s aggressive rate hikes are getting prices to stabilize, he added. “[Fed officials] do not want to sacrifice what they’ve gained.”
Yellen says China talks ‘productive’ at end of Beijing trip - Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled at a Sunday morning press conference in Beijing that her talks with Chinese officials this week made progress in shoring up the frayed relationship between the U.S. and China. Yellen, the second Biden administration official to visit the country in the last several weeks, said conversations with her counterparts were “direct, substantive and productive.” The talks covered U.S.-China economic issues, national security, climate change and global debt challenges. The big takeaway as Yellen prepared to leave Beijing: The U.S. believes the world’s two largest economies can have a constructive relationship despite their geopolitical tensions, which have triggered export controls for high-tech goods and materials. “President Biden and I do not see the relationship between the U.S. and China through the frame of great power conflict,” she said. “We believe that the world is big enough for both of our countries to thrive.” Yellen’s attempt to rehabilitate the Washington-Beijing economic dialogue is the latest step in a Biden administration initiative to stabilize ties, which have been strained by trade disputes, Covid-19 and this year’s incursion of a Chinese spy balloon over the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken touted progress last month after he met with President Xi Jinping and other officials in Beijing. Yellen said her meetings, which totaled about 10 hours over two days, “served as a step forward in our effort to put the U.S.-China relationship on surer footing.” While she said the U.S. will continue to take actions to protect its national security interests, Yellen and President Joe Biden believe there can be “healthy economic competition” between the U.S. and China — “an economic relationship that is mutually beneficial in the long term.” “I do believe that it’s possible for both countries to be attentive to and to take actions to protect their national security interests,” she said. The major win from Yellen’s visit appeared to be a willingness on the part of both sides to keep talking after years of escalating tensions over trade and security. Yellen said the trip was an opportunity for U.S. officials and a new economic team in Beijing to “establish a desire and willingness to work together to discuss issues where we have disagreements and see deeper engagement on the part of our staffs.”
Biden Defends Decision to Send Cluster Bombs to Ukraine - President Biden on Friday defended his decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs, which are banned by over 100 nations because they are exceptionally harmful to civilians.The Pentagon announced Friday that the US was sending cluster munitions to Ukraine as part of an $800 million weapons package. Kyiv will receive dual-purpose improved conventional munitions (DPICM), small bomblets packed into 155mm artillery shells designed to spread the munitions.On February 28, 2022, then-White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who now has her own TV show on MSNBC,told reporters that Russia’s use of cluster munitions in Ukraine would “potentially be a war crime.” But now, the Biden administration has changed its tune on the widely-banned munitions.Speaking to CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria on Friday, President Biden said he needed to send cluster bombs because Ukraine and the US are running out of ammunition. “This is a war relating to munitions. And they’re running out of that ammunition, and we’re low on it,” he said. “And so, what I finally did, I took the recommendation of the Defense Department to — not permanently — but to allow for this transition period, while we get more 155 weapons, these shells, for the Ukrainians.”While Biden frames the provision of cluster bombs as temporary, Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the US will arm Ukraine with “hundreds of thousands” of the munitions.Cluster bombs are especially hazardous to civilians because many of the bomblets don’t explode on impact, meaning people could find them years later. During the Vietnam War, the US dropped millions of cluster bomblets on Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, and each country is still dealing with them to this day.
Congressional Democrats, US Allies Break With Biden on Cluster Bombs for Ukraine -President Biden’s decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs has sparked rare Democratic criticism of his proxy war with Russia, and some of the US’s top NATO allies have also spoken out against the move.“The decision by the Biden administration to transfer cluster munitions to Ukraine is unnecessary and a terrible mistake,” said Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, according to Politico.“The legacy of cluster bombs is misery, death and expensive cleanup generations after their use … These weapons should be eliminated from our stockpiles, not dumped in Ukraine,” she added. Nineteen House progressives issued a joint statement condemning the move. “Cluster munitions have been banned by nearly 125 countries under the United Nations Convention on Cluster Munitions because of the indiscriminate harm they cause, including mass civilian injury and death,” the statement said.Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) signed on to the statement and criticized President Biden’s decision in an appearance on CNN. “Cluster bombs should never be used. That’s crossing a line,” Lee said.NATO allies Spain, the UK, and Canada, all parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, have warned against providing Ukraine with cluster munitions. “Spain, based on the firm commitment it has with Ukraine, also has a firm commitment that certain weapons and bombs cannot be delivered under any circumstances,” said Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles.British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the UK will uphold its commitment as a “signatory to a convention which prohibits the production or use of cluster munitions and discourages their use.”The Canadian government said in a statement that “we do not support the use of cluster munitions and are committed to putting an end to the effects cluster munitions have on civilians — particularly children.”
Blinken says Ukraine would be 'defenseless' without U.S. cluster bombs - Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday defended the Biden administration’s decision to send cluster munitions to Ukraine as it wages a counteroffensive against Russian forces, saying it was a decision of last resort in the face of supply constraints. “The stockpiles around the world and in Ukraine of the unitary munitions, not the cluster munitions, were running low. They’re about to be depleted,” Blinken said in an interview with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “The hard but necessary choice to give them the cluster munitions amounted to this: If we didn’t do it, we don’t do it — then they will run out of ammunition. If they run out of ammunition, they will be defenseless.” Blinken’s comments come amid a summit of NATO members in Vilnius, Lithuania, where members have considered the entry of two new countries, Finland and Sweden, into the alliance, as well as the war in Ukraine. The comments also come on the heels of last week’s announcement from the Biden administration that it would send cluster munitions to Ukraine. Cluster munitions, which are officially termed dual-purpose improved conventional munitions, are designed to take out multiple military targets by scattering large numbers of explosive “bomblets” over a wide area. Both sides in the ongoing war in Ukraine have used cluster munitions, with Ukrainian cluster munitions killing eight civilians in Izium last year, according to Human Rights Watch. However, cluster munitions have historically left behind unexploded ordinances that can endanger civilians well after conflicts end. More than 100 countries, including most members of NATO, have signed onto the 2010 Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits their use, transfer, production and stockpiling; the United States, Russia and Ukraine are not among the signatories. U.S. allies, as well as human rights groups, have criticized the decision. The Biden administration has also faced outrage from some key Democrats on Capitol Hill, who broke with the president publicly last week over the decision.
Sunak tells Biden UK will stand by cluster bomb ban amid Ukraine tensions – — Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak were all smiles Monday as they met in London — but concern about the United States’ decision to send cluster bombs to Ukraine lingered.The U.K. prime minister told the U.S. president Monday that Britain will “stand by our obligations” under a treaty banning the production or use of the controversial munitions, according to Sunak’s official spokesperson.Publicly, the two leaders — meeting for the sixth time since Sunak became prime minister last year — demonstrated a united front ahead of this week’s NATO summit in Vilnius.Speaking in front of reporters at Downing Street, Biden said he “couldn’t be meeting with a closer friend and a greater ally.”In a sit-down that ran to just 40 minutes, and saw the pair drink tea in the garden of 10 Downing Street, the U.S president and British PM reaffirmed what Biden called “rock solid” relations between the two countries.“We stand as two of the firmest allies in that alliance and I know we’ll want to do everything we can to strengthen Euro-Atlantic security,” Sunak said.But the U.S. decision to arm Ukraine with cluster bombs as part of its latest weapons package has already opened a rift among NATO countries ahead of the summit.Sunak pointedly said over the weekend that the U.K. “discourages” use of the weapons — and his spokesperson reiterated that position in a briefing after the Biden-Sunak meeting, saying the prime minister had raised the issue directly with the U.S. president.Britain is one of more than 100 countries who are signed up to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits “the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians.”
Rep. Gaetz Says He Will Co-Sponsor Amendment to Block Cluster Bombs to Ukraine - Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said Monday that he will be the Republican co-sponsor of an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that aims to block the provision of cluster bombs to Ukraine.The amendment was introduced by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA) and is co-sponsored by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA).“I’m going to be the Republican co-sponsor of the Jacobs amendment before the House Rules Committee,” Gaetz said on his podcast.The amendment reads: “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no military assistance shall be furnished for cluster munitions, no defense export license for cluster munitions may be issued, and no cluster munitions or cluster munitions technology shall be sold or transferred.”Gaetz said that the NDAA will be voted on this week in the House. “We have an opportunity with bipartisanship to stand against the war-mongering Bidens,” he said.Cluster bombs spread small submunitions over large areas, many of which do not explode on impact, making them a hazard for civilians who can come across them years or even decades later. Because of their indiscriminate nature, cluster munitions are banned by over 100 countries, including many of the US’s top NATO allies.“Children will be left without limbs and without parents because of this decision by Joe Biden if we do not work together in a bipartisan fashion to stop it,” Gaetz said.While there is an effort to block the shipment of cluster bombs to Ukraine, they could already be on the way. The Pentagon announced they were providing cluster munitions in the form of 155mm artillery rounds using the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows Biden to ship weapons to Ukraine directly from US stockpiles.Biden has defended his decision to arm Ukraine with cluster munitions by saying both Ukraine and the US are running low on ammunition. Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the US will arm Ukraine with “hundreds of thousands” of the munitions.
House Votes Down Amendment to Block Cluster Bomb Shipments to Ukraine - The House on Thursday night voted down an amendment to the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act that would have prohibited the transfer of cluster munitions to Ukraine.The amendment was led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and failed in a vote of 147-276. The amendment received support from 98 Republicans and 49 Democrats.The night before the vote, Republicans on the House Rules Committee voted down the original amendmentrelating to cluster bombs that would have banned the export of the controversial munition to all nations, not just Ukraine, which had bipartisan co-sponsors. The Republicans then added the narrowed-down Greene amendment, which was less likely to get Democratic support.Narrowing the amendment to Ukraine made it more of a vote against military aid for Ukraine rather than a vote against cluster bombs, and there’s been virtually no dissent from Democrats on President Biden’s Ukraine policy.Even if the amendment passed, it wouldn’t have blocked current shipments of cluster bombs as they havealready started arriving in Ukraine, and the NDAA still has a long way to go before it becomes law. Both the House and the Senate need to pass their versions, and then the two chambers have to negotiate the finalized version.The House also voted down amendments put forward by Greene and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) to reduce funding for Ukraine. One amendment from Greene would have cut $300 million in military aid for Ukraine that’s packed into the $886 billion NDAA, but it failed in a vote of 89-341.Gaetz put forward an amendment to cut off all military assistance for Ukraine. The measure failed in a vote of70-358, with only Republicans voting in favor.
US Cluster Bombs Have Arrived in Ukraine - A Ukrainian general told CNN on Thursday that Ukraine has received a shipment of US cluster bombs, controversial munitions that have a devastating impact on civilians.“We just got them, we haven’t used them yet, but they can radically change the situation on the battlefield,” Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi said.The Biden administration announced last week that it was sending Ukraine cluster munitions in the form of 155mm artillery shells as part of an $800 million weapons package.It’s not clear how many have arrived in Ukraine so far, but Pentagon officials have said they will provide“hundreds of thousands” of rounds.The cluster munitions are being provided using the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows President Biden to ship Ukraine weapons directly from US military stockpiles.Cluster bombs scatter small submunitions over large areas, making them especially hazardous for civilians. Submunitions that don’t explode immediately on impact can kill or maim civilians for decades to come, as they have in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, where the US dropped hundreds of millions of bomblets during the Vietnam War.Because of their indiscriminate nature, cluster bombs have been banned by over 100 countries. But the US, Ukraine, and Russia are not signatories to the treaty, known as the Convention on Cluster Munitions.The Biden administration has defended arming Kyiv with the brutal weapons by saying both the US and Ukraine are running out of conventional artillery ammunition. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Ukraine would be “defenseless” without cluster bombs.
Report: Biden Administration Debating Sending ATACMs to Ukraine -The Biden administration is quietly debating whether or not to provide Ukraine with Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), which have a range of up to 190 miles, The New York Times reported Tuesday.The Wall Street Journal reported at the end of June that the administration was moving closer to providing Ukraine with ATACMS, which would mark a significant escalation of US military aid. But so far, no decision has been made, and some US officials don’t think the Pentagon has enough ATACMS to spare for Ukraine.The US has been depleting its military stockpiles for Ukraine, which is the excuse the administration used to start giving Ukraine cluster bombs even though they will kill and maim civilians decades after the war.Before leaving the NATO summit in Lithuania, President Biden appeared to acknowledge that he was considering arming Ukraine with ATACMS. “Yes, but they — they already have the equivalent of ATACMS now,” Biden said when asked if he was thinking of sending the missiles. “What we need most of all is artillery shells, and they’re in short supply. We’re working on that.”ATACMS can be fired from the HIMARS rocket systems the US has been providing Ukraine. Most of the ammunition Kyiv has for use with the HIMARS has a range of about 50 miles, although the US has also pledged Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB), which can hit targets up to 94 miles away.US allies have begun providing longer-range missiles to Ukraine, including France, which announced Tuesday it will give Kyiv air-launched SCALP missiles that have a range of 155 miles. The SCALP missiles are similar to the Storm Shadows, which the UK recently started shipping to Ukraine.The longer-range arms risk a major escalation of the war as they can be used to target Russian territory. The US says it’s restricted Ukraine’s use of American arms to Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory, but the rule does not apply to Crimea since the US doesn’t recognize the peninsula as Russian.
Lavrov Says Russia Will View F-16s in Ukraine as Nuclear Threat - Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia will view US-made F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine as a nuclear threat because they are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.“We have informed the nuclear powers, the United States, Britain and France, that Russia cannot ignore the ability of these aircraft to carry nuclear weapons. No amount of assurances will help here,” Lavrov said.President Biden has given the green light for European countries to deliver F-16s for Ukraine, and 11 of Ukraine’s Western backers announced Tuesday that they would start training Ukrainian pilots on the US-made aircraft in August.F-16s are capable of carrying US B61 nuclear gravity bombs, which the US stores in several European countries under NATO’s nuclear sharing program. There’s no indication the US is planning to arm Ukraine with nukes, but Lavrov said Russia will still take the threat seriously.“In the course of combat operations, our servicemen are not going to sort out whether each particular aircraft of this type is equipped to deliver nuclear weapons or not,” he said. “We will regard the very fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have such systems as a threat from the West in the nuclear sphere.”Lavrov added that the US and its allies are “creating risks of a direct armed clash with Russia, and this is fraught with catastrophic consequences.” In the early days of the war, NATO ruled out arming Ukraine with fighter jets because they feared Russia would perceive the move as the alliance directly entering the war, but the concerns of escalation have waned.Lavrov has previously noted that F-16s could carry nuclear weapons, a warning that was brushed off by the Biden administration. “The first thing I would say to Minister Lavrov is: If you’re worried about Ukrainian military capabilities, then you should take your troops and leave Ukraine,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said last month.
Biden Order Activates 3,000 Reservists for Europe Deployments - President Biden on Thursday signed an executive order allowing the Pentagon to mobilize 3,000 reservists for deployments in Europe, where the US military has significantly increased its presence since Russia invaded Ukraine.Since February 2022, the US has deployed over 20,000 additional troops to Europe, bringing US troop levels on the continent to over 100,000 for the first time since 2005. The US has beefed up its presence in Eastern Europe and currently has over 10,000 troops in Poland, which has become a hub for weapons bound for Ukraine.The mobilization of 3,000 reservists signals the US military is strained by maintaining a large troops presence in Europe. A spokesman for US European Command (EUCOM) said the authority will “not change current force-posture levels,” suggesting the reservists might be used to rotate other troops out of Europe.“These authorities will ensure long-term resilience in EUCOM’s continued heightened level of presence and operations,” said EUCOM spokesman Capt. Bill Speaks.The Pentagon said the reservists will support Operation Atlantic Resolve, the name for US military activities in Europe that have come in response to events in Ukraine since 2014, the year a US-backed coup in Kyiv led to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the civil war in Ukraine’s Donbas region.
US Wants Southeast Asian Nations to ‘Push Back’ Against China in South China Sea - A senior State Department official said Friday that the US was looking at building relationships with Southeast Asian nations to “push back” against China in the South China Sea.Daniel Kritenbrink, the US assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, made the comments when discussing Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s upcoming trip to Indonesia, where he will meet with foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) from July 15-16.“In our view, it’s not a matter of getting countries on board with the US view. It’s a matter of working with our ASEAN partners to advance our shared view and vision for the region, and to push back on behavior that runs counter to that vision and to those principles, including the many irresponsible acts that we’ve seen carried out by China over the last several years and in the last several weeks,” Kritenbrink said.The South China Sea has become a potential flash point for a conflict between Washington and Beijing. The US has increased its military presence in the disputed waters and has pledged to intervene if Philippine vessels come under attack in the area. China, the Philippines, and several other ASEAN members have overlapping claims to the South China Sea. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Philippine counterpart last week and reaffirmed that the US-Philippine Mutual Defense Treaty “extends to Philippine public vessels, aircraft, and armed forces — to include those of its Coast Guard — in the Pacific, including anywhere in the South China Sea.”While the US and the Philippines have recently taken steps to increase their military alliance, other ASEAN members are not eager to take the US’s side against China. The ASEAN has also struggled to coordinate a response to China’s claims and activity in the South China Sea since members have their own outstanding disputes.
Biden's Joint Chiefs Pick Wants More Bases in Asia to Prepare for War With China -President Biden’s nominee to replace Gen. Mark Milley as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that he would pursue establishing more bases in the Indo-Pacific region and increase support for Taiwan to prepare for a future war with China, Nikkei Asia reported Wednesday.Gen. Charles Q. Brown told a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing that the Pentagon must “implement the National Defense Strategy and prepare a joint force that can win the next war, if called upon.”The Pentagon’s 2022 National Defense Strategy names China as the “most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security strategy,” with Russia named as the second priority. Brown said the US needs to establish more outposts in the Indo-Pacific because it takes time to move resources around the “massive” region.“You cannot wait till the crisis occurs to be able to deploy capability,” he said. “You have to preposition capability and have that in place. You have to work with allies and partners to have access to locations.”The Senate hearing discussed a new authority that allows the US military to send weapons to Taiwan straight from Pentagon stockpiles, known as the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the primary way the US has been arming Ukraine. The 2023 National Defense Strategy included $1 billion in PDA for Taiwan, but it hasn’t yet been used. “It will indeed help [Taiwan] to procure some asymmetric capabilities to defend,” Brown said. Brown is a fighter pilot who currently serves as the chief of staff of the Air Force and stresses the importance of air power in a future fight with China. He headed US Pacific Forces from 2018-2020 and is said to have been nominated for his experience in Asia. Brown also has experience in the Middle East and was the deputy commander of US Central Command from 2016-2018, when the US was engaged in a brutal air campaignagainst ISIS.
Treasury taps sanctions expert Andrea Gacki to lead Fincen — The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday named one of its leading sanctions specialists to lead the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. Andrea Gacki replaces outgoing Fincen head Himamauli Das, who was the agency's acting director over the last two years. She assumes the position as Fincen is writing new regulations aimed at combating corruption within the United States and abroad.So far, the agency has issued two of three rules it was charged with writing under the Corporate Transparency Act, which was introduced in 2020 and became law the following year. That law aimed to curb illicit practices within the country's financial system and streamline theidentification of undisclosed shell company owners. "Fincen plays a vital role in safeguarding the U.S. financial system, and I look forward to leading the Fincen team in these important efforts," Gacki said in a written statement. "I also look forward to continuing Fincen's critical efforts to implement the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, including the Corporate Transparency Act."Since September 2019, Gacki has served as director of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control. At Fincen, she will now lead another Treasury division that focuses on cracking down on illicit finance.Gacki's appointment, which does not require Senate confirmation, comes at a time when the United States has numerous sanctions in place against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. The Biden administration has continued to make rooting out sanctions evasion a top priority, and the new director is expected to bolster such efforts. With no end to the war in sight, Fincen will continue to be one of the key players tasked with preventing Russian illicit finance.
US Claims Drone Strike Killed ISIS Leader in Eastern Syria - US Central Command on Sunday said that it killed an ISIS “leader” in a drone strike in eastern Syria that it launched on July 7 and suggested that a civilian may have also been injured in the bombing.“On July 7, US Central Command conducted a strike in Syria that resulted in the death of Usamah al-Muhajir, an ISIS leader in eastern Syria,” CENTCOM said in a press release.The press release said there were no “indications” that civilians were killed in the strike but that CENTCOM was “assessing reports of a civilian injury.” A recent CENTCOM drone strike launched on May 3 killed a civilian in northwest Syria.CENTCOM has been accusing Russia of “harassing” its drones over Syria and said the MQ-9 Reaper drone that launched the July 7 strike was “the same MQ-9s that had, earlier in the day, been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours.”Russia is an ally of the Syrian government based in Damascus, which opposes the US occupation of eastern Syria. Damascus and its allies are all sworn enemies of ISIS and would continue fighting the terrorist group if the US pulled out of Syria.
US Launches Series of Airstrikes in Somalia - US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said Sunday that it launched three airstrikes in Somalia and claimed the bombardment killed 10 al-Shabaab fighters.The command said the strikes were launched in a remote area about 65 miles north of Kismaayo, a port city in southern Somalia. AFRICOM said the strikes were conducted to support Somali government forces who were fighting al-Shabaab on the ground.AFRICOM claimed that its “initial assessment” found no civilians were harmed, although the Pentagon is notorious for undercounting civilian casualties, especially in Somalia, where US operations are shrouded in secrecy.The incident was the first airstrike AFRICOM reported in Somalia since one launched on June 1. However, it’s not clear if the command is reporting every US airstrike in the country. According to the monitoring group Airwars, suspected US airstrikes hit al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia on June 11 and June 16.The US escalated airstrikes in Somalia after President Biden ordered the deployment of up to 500 troops to the country in May 2022. The US-backed Mogadishu-based government launched an offensive against al-Shabaab in September of last year, leading to heavy fighting on the ground and more US airstrikes.
‘No way in hell’ : Omar says she will not attend Israeli president’s upcoming address to joint session of Congress - Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) said on Wednesday that she has no plans to attend Israeli president’s Isaac Herzog upcoming joint address to Congress, citing the ongoing tensions between Israeli government and Palestine. “There is no way in hell I am attending the joint session address from a President whose country has banned me and denied @RashidaTlaib the ability to see her grandma,” Omar said in her Twitter thread. She noted that the U.S. shouldn’t be inviting a president of a government that barred her and her fellow lawmaker, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), from visiting their country. “Israeli President Isaac Herzog’s address comes on behalf of the most right wing government in Israel’s history, at a time when the government is openly promising to “crush” Palestinian hopes of statehood—essentially putting a nail in the coffin of peace and a two-state solution,” Omar said in her thread. Omar added in her thread the recent issues and concerns with the country and its government, noting the far-right members of the government attempt to push legislation that will overhaul the country’s Supreme Court. She also noted that she recently opposed an invitation for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s joint address to Congress last month due to his government’s human rights record. “The United States can and should use its diplomatic tools to engage with the Israeli government, but giving the current government the honor of a joint televised address sends the absolute wrong signal at the wrong time,” Omar concluded in her thread.
House Republicans use spending bills to push for abortion restrictions --House Republicans are pressing for abortion restrictions in government spending and must-pass policy bills, giving lawmakers a way to show their anti-abortion bonafides without putting the difficult issue to a standalone vote. The moves set up a clash with the Senate, as Democrats say they will block any poison pills, and even Republicans acknowledge the bills will need to be bipartisan. The anti-abortion provisions are wide ranging. Some are written into the text of the underlying legislation, while some are amendments. They touch on the military’s reimbursement for abortion-related travel, whether Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals should provide abortions, and changes to how the abortion drug mifepristone is dispensed. “It’s just to create division, culture, wars, etc. And they think that that’s going to distract the public from the unbelievable harm they’re doing in terms of the programmatic cuts from the services that people rely on,” Rep. Rosa Delauro (Conn.), top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told The Hill on Tuesday. The fight over abortion access to military personnel has been playing out in the Senate for months, as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) single-handedly stalls military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members who need to travel out of state to obtain an abortion. The policy was enacted last year in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which had for almost 50 years protected the federal right to an abortion. That issue has moved to the House, where it threatens to delay a vote on the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), as conservatives are pushing an amendment that would rescind the policy. It’s unclear if the amendment will end up as part of the larger bill, but appropriations bills have already advanced in the House with anti-abortion provisions included. Last month, the House Appropriations Committee advanced the Food and Drug Administration spending bill, which included a provision rolling back a policy that allows pharmacists to dispense mifepristone — one of the drugs used in medication abortion — and for it to be sent to patients by mail. The full committee also advanced the annual Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding bill that banned VA medical centers from performing any abortions or gender-affirming care. The VA said last year that medical facilities would offer abortion access to veterans and eligible dependents “in cases that endanger the life or health of an individual,” even in states that ban abortion without exceptions.
Top House Armed Services Democrat says ‘more likely than not’ that defense bill won’t pass --Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said on Wednesday that he believes the annual defense bill is “more likely than not” to not pass.In an interview with CNN’s Manu Raju, Smith, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Armed Services, criticized far-right Republicans for their attempts to include provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that would defund the military’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Smith previously said he was worried about “extreme right-wing amendments” attached to the House bill in an interview with The Washington Post Monday. “A small group of people isn’t just saying ‘We want to vote on things that we care about,’” Smith said in the CNN interview. “They want to say, ‘If we don’t get what we want, we’ll tear the whole thing down.’”Smith originally voted for the bill in committee back in late June after hours of debate between Democrats and Republicans over culture war issues. At the time, he criticized his colleague Rep. Elise Stefanik (R- N.Y.) for her push to place a “parental rights” provision into the bill for service members who send their kids to military-affiliated schools.
Top Marine Gen. David Berger retires with no Senate-confirmed successor in place - For the first time in more than 100 years, the Marine Corps has no Senate-confirmed leader.And despite the retirement of Commandant Gen. David Berger, there’s no inkling that the situation will change any time soon.Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s seven-month hold on all senior military promotions ran head-on into the long military history of smooth leadership handoversduring a pomp-filled ceremony Monday at the Marine Corps Barracks in Washington.Berger, whose four-year tour as the Marines’ top officer came to an end, was supposed to hand the reins over to Gen. Eric Smith, who has been nominated for the job. Instead, Smith will run the Corps on a temporary basis while he waits for Senate confirmation, thanks to the hold. Because he’s not confirmed, Smith will have to hold off on making any making strategic decisions for the service. He will also simultaneously serve in his current position as the Marine Corps’ No. 2.“I know that everyone here is looking forward to the rapid confirmation of a distinguished successor to General Berger,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in brief remarks before jetting off to a NATO summit in Lithuania.
Tuberville’s hold leaves Marines leaderless for first time in 164 years -The blockade from Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) on about 250 of the Pentagon’s general and flag officers has left the Marine Corps without a confirmed leader for the first time in 164 years. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger officially retired on Monday, leaving Assistant Commandant Gen. Eric Smith as the acting commandant and leader of the military branch until he is confirmed in the Senate. The last time the Marine Corps was left with an acting commandant was in 1859, when Archibald Henderson, the fifth commandant of the Marines, died at 76 without a successor in place. It’s unclear when Smith could be confirmed. Tuberville’s hold on the Pentagon nominees, which he began in March to protest the Defense Department’s new abortion policy, shows no signs of weakening, even as the block has sparked bipartisan frustration. Tuberville’s hold is affecting leadership posts held by key military officers, prompting concern from the White House, Defense Department, former Defense secretaries under Republican and Democratic administrations and congressional colleagues, all of whom have warned about the harm to national security from the block. The hold is also set to block key nominees on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, including the replacement for Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman, who retires in September.
Permitting talks to resume as Congress returns - Congress returns from a two-week recess with a host of unresolved issues, including one big one: permitting reform. Despite the recent debt ceiling accord, which included a rewrite to permitting laws, lawmakers have insisted they are still working on an even bigger deal. Some informal bipartisan talks have already begun, lawmakers say. But a breakthrough remains far from reach. Senate leaders say the matter remains a top priority. On Sunday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told his colleagues in a letter that efforts to “unlock permitting reform” would be a focus ahead of the August recess. He also pointed to other efforts, including a rail safety bill, a still-inchoate successor to last year’s CHIPS and Science law and the farm bill as on the agenda for the rest of the month. In the Republican-controlled House, the annual defense policy bill, the National Defense Authorization Act, is scheduled to hit the floor this week. Both chambers are continuing to work through annual spending bills. When it comes to permitting, loosely formed groups are continuing to talk after the debt limit deal yielded permitting wins for Republicans and mostly nothing for Democrats. A Democratic aide familiar with the workings of one of the groups, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the idea is to take a step forward this month. Still, the aide admitted that the details of a potential proposal remain murky. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), a main negotiator in the debt ceiling talks, told POLITICO last month that he has been speaking with Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) to “pre-negotiate a solution” on a new permitting deal. Graves also planned to speak with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who, as chair of the Judiciary Committee, could have jurisdiction over a potential permitting bill. At the same time, Manchin has said he intends to hold a hearing this month on permitting in the Senate committee he chairs: Energy and Natural Resources.
Future murky for big China bill with energy, climate language - Even though Senate Democrats have been talking a big game about moving a follow-up to last year’s CHIPS and Science Act, possibly with climate provisions, Republicans remain either cool or uninitiated to the idea. The China competition package approved during the last Congress authorized billions of dollars for the Department of Energy’s national labs. This time around, some Democrats have spoken about using new legislation to carry tariffs on carbon-intensive imports. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the sponsor of the 2022 law, has said several times in the past few months, most recently this weekend, that his goal was to build bipartisan support for new legislation. But Republicans who were closely involved in the push the last time say they have not been brought up to speed on Democratic aspirations to advance “CHIPS 2.0.” Some envision more incremental action. “What does that mean?” said Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), one of the lead sponsors of the original legislation, when asked about the current effort. Young added that he was, at this point, “focused quite intensively on implementation of the CHIPS and Science Act … I’m not aware that additional legislative activity is needed and appropriate.” Young is helping lead bipartisan, bicameral legislation intended to hasten the domestic production of microchips via the federal incentives unleashed in the CHIPS and Science Act. The “Building Chips in America Act” would make changes to the National Environmental Policy Act to allow for faster environmental reviews for permits for relevant CHIPS Act projects. It includes clarifying language that certain projects need not qualify as “major federal actions,” designating the Commerce Department as the lead agency in charge of greenlighting projects. The bill would also shorten the statute of limitation for litigation. Young told E&E News this bill constituted “a narrow solution to a broadly understood problem.”
House Republicans propose deep cuts for Interior, EPA - House Republicans would take a budgetary buzzsaw to energy and environmental agencies the Biden administration and Democrats had buttressed after years of stagnant funding. On Wednesday evening, GOP lawmakers released their Interior-Environment spending bill, which would slash spending for programs vital to President Joe Biden’s agenda. The bill would approve $25.4 billion in nondefense discretionary spending for fiscal 2024, a significant drop of $13.4 billion or 35 percent from enacted funding. Republicans, who won the House during last year’s midterm elections, will likely not succeed in pushing through such deep cuts, with Democrats in control of the Senate. Still, the era of big increases is over. The House Appropriations Committee’s Republicans said the bill pulls back “wasteful Washington spending” by “rightsizing agency funding levels” and “limiting job killing regulations by the EPA.” “The bill meets the programmatic needs of the agencies,” the committee said, “by reining in spending for low priority programs.” The package would provide $14.3 billion for Interior, $677 million below fiscal 2023 levels and a sizable $3.4 billion below the Biden administration’s request. The legislation has language to get gray wolves back off the Endangered Species Act list. It also features some newer arrivals on the culture clash front. The bill would block funding for the flying of anything other than official flags on property held by Interior, EPA and other agencies covered by the legislation. EPA would receive close to $6.2 billion in fiscal 2024, a drastic downsizing of 39 percent, given its current budget of $10.1 billion. The GOP plan is far below the nearly $12.1 billion Biden requested. Democrats noted that the bill would return EPA to funding levels last seen in 1991.
The Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling Could Hamper Biden’s Environmental Justice Agenda - A landmark decision by the Supreme Court to end the use of race-based affirmative action in college admissions could impede federal efforts to reduce the nation’s persistent economic, environmental and health disparities, one of President Joe Biden’s top political priorities. Biden promised when he first took office to advance environmental justice through a “whole-of government” approach. Democrats also dedicated some $60 billion for environmental justice projects in their flagship climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. But some legal scholars are now warning that the administration could find it more difficult to carry out those efforts after the high court’s decision last week to end affirmative action. Specifically, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the admission policies of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional because they considered the race of the applicants. Known more commonly as affirmative action, the practice of giving an advantage to potential students from some races has aimed to reverse decades of racial discrimination in higher education, proponents argue. It’s among several precedent-breaking decisions by the high court’s conservative supermajority in recent years that not only throw a wrench in President Biden’s agenda, but are likely to have widespread ramifications for generations to come. “This does not mean that race-conscious environmental justice efforts are doomed—but the court clearly signaled that the strict-scrutiny test has very sharp teeth,” Emily Hammond, a professor and vice provost for faculty affairs at George Washington University Law School, told E&E News. “Federal, state and local governments will need to tightly craft their environmental justice policies to meet this standard.” In other words, federal agencies could have less leeway when it comes to implementing Biden’s executive orders, including those aimed at advancing environmental justice, said Sam Sankar, senior vice president for programs at Earthjustice, one of the nation’s oldest environmental law organizations.
Lawmakers scramble to pass bipartisan nuclear bills - Congress has seen a surge this year of bipartisan nuclear legislation that, put together, would produce a mammoth build-out of reactors and fuel supplies over the next decade. Sponsors and other supporters just need to figure out how to get those bills through the gauntlet of Congress in a tough legislative year. The task won’t be as easy compared to years past, when a Democratic majority in both chambers delivered hundreds of millions for uranium mining. Congress also passed pivotal nuclear production tax credits and subsidies to keep struggling reactors online in landmark plans like the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure law. The new political reality — a split Congress and a razor-thin House Republican majority — will make it a challenge to sign any legislation into law. The nuclear industry is eyeing the action closely. It isn’t content with the tax breaks and funds they’ve received in recent years. Industry leaders and their allies say Congress still needs to act on critical areas hampering nuclear buildout, including limiting complex environmental regulations and securing a domestic fuel supply for future reactors. “If you look at the IRA, your tax provisions here, if you look at other investments we made … we’ve provided great incentives,” said Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.). “We want to make sure that we have the regulatory structure in place to help facilitate and move that forward safely.” Nuclear energy, once viewed as too marred by a history of accidents and an intractable waste problem, is now a common-ground energy source between traditional Republican boosters and climate-minded Democrats — many of whom are increasingly convinced that the zero-carbon energy is pivotal for the transition to a clean energy future. But even that momentum may not be enough. In the end, congressional nuclear backers may have to get a little creative to get their priorities into law.
As Budget Talks Heat Up in Congress, Republicans Ramp Up Attacks on Climate Spending - Republicans are doubling down on their attacks on clean energy and climate spending, kicking off their return to Congress this week with a slew of bills and amendments that would block key funding pools established under the Inflation Reduction Act and prohibit the federal government from advancing policies aimed at reducing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to new reports. Congress must pass a number of spending bills by Sept. 30, when current funding expires, to avoid a government shutdown. While Democrats and Republicans narrowly avoided a U.S. default last month when they reached a fragile deal to raise the debt ceiling, this week’s budget talks already appear to be on shaky ground as far-right members of the GOP continue to frame climate action and other progressive concerns through America’s culture wars.In fact, environmentalists are accusing House Republicans of sabotaging any chance for a budget deal this fall by slipping so-called “climate poison pills” into their spending proposals. A poison pill is an amendment to a legislative bill that considerably weakens the bill’s intended effect or ruins the bill’s chances of passing.Last week, the Clean Budget Coalition—a watchdog group composed of environmental advocacy nonprofits, including the Environmental Defense Fund, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Union of Concerned Scientists—said it found at least 17 “poison pill” amendments to appropriations bills that would block clean energy funding and impede federal efforts to address global warming.“The climate poison pills Republican budget leaders proposed are unsound, and they show that GOP leadership is not serious about working with Democrats to pass a budget and prevent a government shutdown,” Elizabeth Gore, senior vice president for political affairs at Environmental Defense Fund, said in a press release. “Their proposed budget, because of these poison pills and cuts to critical clean energy programs, would harm public health and raise energy costs for families and businesses. This is not a starting point for any reasonable negotiations.”Among the amendments is one that would prohibit the federal government from purchasing electric vehicles and EV batteries, as well as prevent it from building EV charging stations. Another would block the implementation of President Joe Biden’s executive order calling for federal agencies to achieve net-zero emissions at their facilities by 2045 and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2032. One would block all U.S. funding to the Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries achieve their emissions and climate-resilience goals under the Paris Agreement. And another would prohibit all funding related to the Justice40 initiative—the cornerstone policy of Biden’s environmental justice agenda that directs federal agencies to deliver 40 percent of the “overall benefits” of their environmental and energy investments to disadvantaged communities.House Republicans have also proposed a slew of amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act that would limit the Pentagon’s use of electric vehicles, Maxine Joselow reports for The Washington Post. Among those amendments are ones that would:
US Republicans oppose climate funding as millions suffer in extreme weather -Swaths of the US are baking under record-breaking heat, yet some lawmakers are still attempting to block any spending to fight the climate crisis, advocates say.Nearly 90 million Americans are facing heat alerts this week, including in Las Vegas, Nevada, which may break its all-time hottest temperature record; Phoenix, Arizona, which will probably break its streak of consecutive days of temperatures over 110F; and parts of Florida, where a marine heatwave has pushed up water temperatures off the coast to levels normally found in hot tubs.Stifling heat is also blanketing parts of Texas, which for weeks earlier this summer sweltered under a record-shattering heat dome which one analysis found was made five times more likely by the climate crisis. Despite this, the state’s Republican senator Ted Cruz is rallying his fellow GOP members of the Senate commerce committee to circulate a memo attacking climate measures in Biden’s proposed 2024 budget, Fox News reported on Wednesday.The memo specifically calls on Republican members of the Senate appropriations commerce, justice, science subcommittee to reject spending provisions focused on climate resilience and environmental justice efforts for scientific agencies. In one example, the memo objects to a Nasa request to fund its Sustainable Flight National Partnership, which seeks to help zero out planet-warming pollution from aviation.“If the goal is to make imperceptible changes in CO2 emissions as part of the administration’s zealous effort to micromanage global temperatures, then Nasa should abandon such wasted mental energy. Nasa should not become a plaything for anti-fossil fuel environmentalists,” the memo says.It should come as no surprise that Cruz, who has accepted massive donations from oil and gas companies, is defending the fossil fuel industry’s interests, said Allie Rosenbluth, US program co-manager at the environmental advocacy and research non-profit Oil Change International.“What is really devastating for communities who are experiencing extreme heat, wildfires, flooding and drought across the US is that because of these bought-out politicians, they are not getting the support that they need to be resilient in the face of climate impacts at the federal level,” she said.House Republicans are fighting climate spending, too. To avoid a government shutdown, lawmakers must pass a slew of spending bills before current funding expires on 30 September. But Republican members of the GOP-controlled House appropriations committee are slipping in anti-climate provisions, which aim to block renewable energy funding and imperil federal efforts to tackle the climate crisis, into their spending bill drafts.Last week, the Clean Budget Coalition – a group of non-profits such as the League of Conservation Voters, Environmental Defense Fund and Public Citizen – identified at least 17 of these “climate poison pills” in appropriation bill drafts. Among them are amendments that would prevent the federal government from purchasing electric vehicles or building EV charging stations; block funding for the Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries meet their climate goals under the Paris agreement; and prohibit funding for a Department of Energy initiative aiming to send 40% of the overall benefits of certain federal investments to flow to disadvantaged communities. Elizabeth Gore, senior vice-president for political affairs at Environmental Defense Fund, said these proposals will impede lawmakers’ chance to reach a budget deal before their fall deadline.“This is not a starting point for any reasonable negotiations,” she said in a release.
House Republicans move to silence Wall Street in climate fight - The fraying relationship between big business and GOP politicians is about to get more strained.Republicans who lead the House Financial Services Committee plan to spend the next few weeks holding hearings and voting on bills designed to send a clear signal: Corporations, in particular big investment managers, should think twice about integrating climate and social goals into their business plans. Committee conservatives will target the process in which advocates pressure public companies to adopt environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals using the shareholder voting process.“I’ve had a personal conversation with Larry Fink at BlackRock about this. I’ve had a conversation with the CEO of Vanguard about this,” Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), a leader in the committee’s upcoming “ESG month,” said of the two giant money managers. “Our objective is not to fight for the CEOs of these companies. Our objective is to defend retail investors in America.”It’s a delicate dance for both sides. While the committee’s bills have no chance of becoming law under President Joe Biden, the messaging — and industry’s response to it — will feed into a broader political conflict that could set the table for the next time Republicans control Washington.House GOP leaders are under pressure to score points in the right’s escalating war on what many Republicans call “woke” capitalism — even though a number of senior GOP lawmakers would rather tell government regulators, instead of executives, what to do. While framed around holding Wall Street to account, Financial Services Committee Republicans appear to be picking spots where they’ll minimize friction with the industry’s biggest players.Lobbyists for their part want to avoid further inflaming tensions. Their companies are poised to be huge targets for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other Republican White House contenders who argue that corporations are exercising ideological agendas. Big money managers and banks already face a barrage of legislative attacks from state Republican officials over their policies on energy and guns. BlackRock’s Fink, the financial industry’s most prominent leader in the sustainable investing trend, said last month he will no longer use the term ESG because “it’s been misused by the far left and the far right.”House Democrats, in a twist, are rallying behind the ability of Wall Street and investors to choose how they want to tackle societal issues such as climate change.“We’ll continue to be the voice that’s defending the fact that the market should have choice,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said in an interview.While the right’s culture war has ensnared a range of major brands, such as Disney and Bud Light, the Financial Services Committee will take a more targeted approach. It’s aiming at firms that play big roles in ESG investing, a strategy for managing businesses and retirement funds that elevates concerns about climate change and diversity.Finance industry proponents argue that addressing issues like climate risk is critical for long-term investing and that there’s consumer demand for it as well.
How Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district became Biden’s climate poster child - — President Joe Biden and Marjorie Taylor Greene have at least one thing in common: They’re both big fans of a solar factory in this corner of northwest Georgia. This sleepy corner of the state, carved out of the Appalachian hills and long known for its carpet industry, is decidedly not Biden country. Former President Donald Trump won nearly 70 percent of the votes here in Whitfield County in 2020, the same year the district first sent the flamethrowing Republican Greene to Congress. One morning in June, a white pickup truck displaying an “Impeach Biden” bumper sticker drove past a Dalton Waffle House. At a nearby Walmart, Dalton residents described their support for their congresswoman. “She’s got balls,” said one local retiree who declined to give his name. “She seems to stand up for us,” said an 84-year-old Greene supporter who thinks 80-year-old Biden isn’t “cognitive enough” to be president. So the heart of Greene’s district might seem an odd place for a solar plant that’s become a poster child for the Biden administration’s climate policy agenda. But that’s the story behind Hanwha Qcells, a South Korea-owned company that built the largest solar panel manufacturing plant in the Western Hemisphere in an industrial area south of Dalton’s downtown. It started churning out solar panels in 2019, but it’s expanding dramatically and hiring, thanks to the major climate law enacted by Biden and uniformly opposed by Greene and her GOP colleagues. Dalton — and areas like it around the country — could be the climate law’s political insurance. That law is driving big renewable energy investments in deep-red districts like Greene’s all over the country. And the Biden administration is betting that local support for those jobs will safeguard both the climate law and the emissions cuts it promises. Even Greene, who has bashed Biden’s climate law and introduced articles to impeach him, loves the solar plant. “I think they’re fantastic,” she told POLITICO’s E&E News earlier this year. “I support all kinds of energy.” Biden pointed to Dalton — and Greene — last week in a speech where he accused Republicans of hypocrisy for “bragging” about the investments from the climate law they voted against. Referring to the Qcells solar plant, Biden said, “You may find it hard to believe, but that’s Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district.” He added, “I’ll be there for the groundbreaking.”
Remember the Climate Solutions Caucus? It's back. - Republicans frequently accuse Democrats of subscribing to the “cult” of “radical environmentalism,” while Democrats routinely slam Republicans for choosing “polluters over people.” It’s in this political environment that 58 House members — 29 from each side — believe they can now come together to find bipartisan compromise around climate policy. It’s a lofty goal that has yet to be tested in the current Congress, and one that has been tried before, with mixed results. But Reps. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.) and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) are bullish on their chances now to have success. On Friday, they will relaunch the House Climate Solutions Caucus under new leadership, seeking to revitalize the group first established in 2016 that has largely languished since 2018. “I’d like us to be active in discussions” on climate legislation, said Garbarino, who sat with Houlahan for a joint interview with E&E News on Thursday afternoon. “Whatever climate bill that’s going to come out and become law, it’s going to have Republicans and Democrats; I think we could actually do some really good legislation and get it passed.” Houlahan agreed. “With very narrow majorities and minorities, there is the possibility for durable, lasting, sustainable solutions to things,” she said. “We just have to find our way to get there, and you have to figure out the people that you can work with, that want to work together, on things to make things happen.” The two met as members of the caucus in earlier incarnations, and became better acquainted during a trip to the U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland. Neither was specific Thursday on what sorts of bills or policies they want the caucus to consider, with Garbarino predicting the agenda will be “member driven.” They will start, they said, by inserting themselves into the ongoing debate over how to fix the nation’s permitting process, where regulatory red tape is stalling critical energy projects around the country. Garbarino and Houlahan said they are close to finalizing a letter to House Republican and Democratic leadership expressing the interest of the Climate Solutions Caucus to engage in discussions on how to move forward legislatively. They also plan to engage with the Senate Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus; the House lawmakers celebrated the impending relaunch of their caucus Wednesday at a reception with their Senate counterparts. Yet it remains to be seen how much success Garbarino and Houlahan will have. Lawmakers are already gearing up for the 2024 election, in which Republicans are set on painting President Joe Biden as out of touch with Americans on energy issues, and Democrats could be disinclined to give Republicans any wins. Still, former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.), who created the caucus in 2016 alongside fellow Floridian and former Rep. Ted Deutch (D), said that in plenty of ways the timing might finally be right for such an undertaking to really thrive.
Senate hearing highlights superbug threats, solutions -A panel of experts in infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and drug development today urged US lawmakers to support legislation that could help revitalize the antibiotic development pipeline.At a hearing held by a subcommittee of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, the experts spoke about the rising threat AMR poses to public health and modern medicine and the role that infection prevention, antibiotic stewardship, diagnostics, and a bolstered infectious disease workforce can play in addressing the problem.But they reiterated that Congress and the federal government ultimately have the power to address the biggest problem facing efforts to tackle drug-resistant superbugs—the broken marketplace for new antibiotics."The most important thing this subcommittee can do is to advance a policy to establish a pull incentive, such as a subscription model, to spur the discovery and development of novel antimicrobials," said Helen Boucher, MD, dean and professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.Joining Boucher on the panel was Christine Ann Miller, president and CEO of drugmaker Melinta Therapeutics, a company that has several antibiotics and antifungals in its portfolio.Miller said the issue that has prompted many companies to abandon antibiotic research and development (R&D) is neither lack of innovation nor a slow approval process. There are innovative products in the pipeline, she noted, and Congress has worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to streamline the approval process for new antibiotics that can treat resistant infections.The problem, Miller explained, is that many of the small companies that develop antibiotics run out of money because newly approved antibiotics are infrequently used. She called for reforms to the reimbursement system and novel mechanisms to "decouple" payment for antibiotics from sales volume."The only way to combat these life-threatening infections is to continually innovate newer, safer antimicrobials and ensure that patients have access to these innovations," Miller told the panel. "Unless we see changes to the post-approval side of the equation, the ability to bring these products to patients remains in jeopardy."To rectify the issue, Miller and Boucher both voiced their support for the PASTEUR (Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance) Act, a bill re-introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers on April 27. The legislation, which was previously introduced in 2020 and 2021 but has never received a vote despite widespread support, would create a subscription-style payment model for new antibiotics.
House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic begins political inquisition of scientists -On Tuesday, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, led by Republican Representative Brad Wenstrup, a podiatrist and former US Army reservist, interrogated two leading authors of the research note titled Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, published in March 2020 and well known in the scientific community for being the first significant investigation into where the virus which causes COVID-19 came from.The purpose of the hearings was intended to discredit Dr. Kristian Andersen, professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research Institute, and Dr. Robert Garry, professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane Medical School, by claiming they “vilified and suppressed the lab leak theory in pursuit of a preferred, coordinated narrative that was not based in truth or science.”Wenstrup claimed that he had evidence “that the conclusions championed by the co-authors of Proximal Origin are not only inaccurate but were crafted to appease a stated political motive.” This involved a supposed cover-up of the real source of the virus, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in which the scientists engaged at the direction of two top health officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins.The Republican-based scenario, initially advanced by fascist Trump counselor Steve Bannon, insists that Fauci and Collins had pushed to publish the paper showing a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 to escape responsibility for creating the virus. They feared that otherwise they would be implicated in offering millions in grants to EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based global nonprofit scientific research organization, which worked with the Chinese lab to conduct studies on bat coronaviruses.Dr. Andersen addressed this right-wing conspiracy theory in his prepared testimony to the hearing. He declared, “The title of this hearing, ‘Investigating the Proximal Origin of a Cover-Up,’ is directly targeted at our March 2020 peer-reviewed study in Nature Medicine titled ‘The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.’”He continued: It has been alleged that our paper was initiated and orchestrated by Dr. Anthony Fauci to disprove, dismiss, and cover up a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 as directed at a February 1, 2020, conference call. ... It has also been suggested that a $8.9 million federal “WARN-ID” grant awarded in 2020 to myself and colleagues from five different countries was a quid-pro-quo we received for changing our conclusions about the likely origin of SARS-CoV-2. Let me categorically say that these allegations are absurd and false.Throughout the hearing, the two scientists gave calm and measured testimony rebutting the conspiracy theory at every point and arguing that proponents of the “lab leak” had not offered a shred of factual evidence. The Republicans howled and preened before the television cameras, appealing to Donald Trump and his fascist supporters.And the Democrats contented themselves with a few “for the record” statements of support for the scientists but otherwise did nothing to interrupt the display witch-hunting worthy of Senator Joe McCarthy at his worst. They are far more concerned with maintaining bipartisan support for the war in Ukraine than in fighting a conspiracy theory launched by fascists like former Trump counselor Steve Bannon.
FDA to review Schumer’s concerns over YouTube stars’ energy drink - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) concerns about a popular energy-drink brand, Prime, and is responding directly to the senator, an FDA official said in a statement Monday night. “The FDA has received the letter, is reviewing the concerns outlined in the letter, and will respond to the Senator directly,” the statement read. Schumer called for an investigation into Prime, a beverage brand that makes a caffeinated energy drink as well as a hydration drink without caffeine. Schumer claimed that Prime, founded by YouTube stars Logan Paul and KSI, was marketing the energy drink to children on social media. Schumer said at a press conference Sunday that his letter to the FDA called for an investigation into Prime for “No. 1, its claims; No. 2, its marketing aimed at kids; and No. 3, its eye-popping caffeine content.” “One of the summer’s hottest status symbols for kids is not an outfit. It’s not a toy. It’s a beverage. But buyer and parents beware, because it’s a serious health concern for the kids it so feverishly targets,” Schumer said. “And the problem here is the product has so much caffeine in it that it puts Red Bull to shame. But, unlike Red Bull, it is specifically targeted — the advertising campaign — is targeted at kids under 18,” he continued. Prime’s energy drink contains 200 milligrams of caffeine per 12 ounces, about the same as two cans of Red Bull. In the statement Monday night, the FDA official gave no indication that the agency was investigating the matter formally. The statement, rather, relayed the standard FDA guidance that says healthy adults generally may consume up to 400 milligrams of caffeine a day without harmful effects. The statement also indicated that children are discouraged from consuming caffeine.
RFK Jr. to testify in House hearing on censorship -Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is set to testify in a congressional hearing next Thursday on the federal government’s role in censorship across the nation. On its website, the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government noted Kennedy Jr. as one of three witnesses set to testify. Other witnesses include Breitbart News journalist Emma-Jo Morris and the Louisiana Department of Justice Special Assistant Attorney General D. John Sauer. The subcommittee’s hearing is set to focus on the federal government’s role in censoring U.S. residents, the Biden’s administration’s lawsuit against Missouri over the state’s gun rights bills and allegations of cooperation between major tech companies and government agencies to hinder free speech.This follows Kennedy’s 2024 presidential campaign announcement in April. He has frequently been referred to as an “anti-vaccine activist,” and in June, YouTube removed an interview between Kennedy and Jordan Peterson for violating its guidelines against vaccine misinformation.
Biden administration asks appeals court to block order limiting its contacts with social media (AP) — The Biden administration asked a federal appeals court Monday to temporarily block a lower court’s order limiting executive branch officials’ discussions with social media companies about controversial online posts. The request for an emergency stay was filed at the 5th U.S. District Court of Appeals shortly after U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty rejected an administration motion that he put his own July 4 order on hold. The order came in a lawsuit filed by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, as well as a conservative website owner and four individual critics of government COVID-19 policies. The lawsuit claimed the administration, in effect, censored free speech by using threats of regulatory action or protection while pressuring companies to remove what it deemed misinformation. COVID-19 vaccines, legal issues involving President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and election fraud allegations were among the topics spotlighted in the lawsuit. Doughty was nominated to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump. His injunction blocked the Department of Health and Human Services, the FBI and multiple other government agencies and administration officials from meeting with or contacting social media companies for the purpose of “encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.” Administration attorneys said in the motion filed at the 5th Circuit that Doughty’s ruling was too broad and vague, and had the potential to chill government officials’ speech on important matters. And they said Doughty failed to point to any evidence that the administration had made threats against social media companies to coerce them to take down posts. “The district court identified no evidence suggesting that a threat accompanied any request for the removal of content. Indeed, the order denying the stay — presumably highlighting the ostensibly strongest evidence — referred to ‘a series of public media statements,’” the administration said.
Schumer, McConnell set stage for fight over Supreme Court ethics – POLITICO video
Justices teach when the Supreme Court isn't in session. It can double as an all-expenses-paid trip (AP) — For decades, the University of Hawaii law school has marketed itsJurist-In-Residence program to the Supreme Court as an all-expenses-paid getaway, with the upside of considerable “down time” in paradise.The justices have enthusiastically participated. “Your colleagues who were here most recently were Justices (Ruth Bader) Ginsburg, (Anthony) Kennedy, and (Stephen) Breyer, and I believe they all would recommend the experience highly,” the law school’s then-Dean Aviam Soifer wrote in a 2010 email trying to draw Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the school in Honolulu. “We will, of course, cover first-class airfare, excellent hotel accommodations, and all other travel expenses.” “Should we have hope of having the Justice here while the icy winds blow in Washington?” he wrote in another. In a follow-up before the justice’s 2012 visit, he included the salutation “Warm (and yet comfortable) greetings from paradise.” Teaching is encouraged as a way to demystify the nation’s highest court while exposing the justices to a cross-section of the public. For decades, they have traveled the globe during court recesses to lecture. It is a permissible practice so long as their earning are less than the court’s roughly $30,000 cap on outside income.In a statement responding to questions, the Supreme Court noted the $30,000 figure and added that “teaching must be at an accredited educational institution or continuing legal educational program and must be approved in advance by the Chief Justice (or by the Associate Justices if it involves teaching by the Chief Justice).”Documents obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests reveal that some all-expenses-paid trips — to Italy, Iceland and Hawaii, among others — are light on classroom instruction, with ample time carved out for the justices’ leisure.
Supreme Court justices and donors mingle at campus visits. These documents show the ethical dilemmas (AP) — When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas headlined a 2017 program at McLennan Community College in Texas, his hosts had more than a speech in mind. Working with the prominent conservative lawyer Ken Starr, school officials crafted a guest list for a dinner at the home of a wealthy Texas businessman, hoping an audience with Thomas would be a reward for school patrons -– and an inducement to prospective donors.Before Justice Elena Kagan visited the University of Colorado’s law school in 2019, one official in Boulder suggested a “larger donor to staff ratio” for a dinner with her. AfterJustice Sonia Sotomayor confirmed she would attend a 2017 question-and-answer session at Clemson University and a private luncheon, officials there made sure to invite $1 million-plus donors to the South Carolina college.The Associated Press obtained tens of thousands of pages of emails and other documentsthat reveal the extent to which public colleges and universities have seen visits by justices as opportunities to generate donations -– regularly putting justices in the room with influential donors, including some whose industries have had interests before the court. The documents also reveal that justices spanning the court’s ideological divide have lent the prestige of their positions to partisan activity, headlining speaking events with prominent politicians, or advanced their own personal interests, such as sales of their books, through college visits. The conduct would likely be prohibited if done by lower court federal judges. But the Supreme Court’s definition of banned fundraising is so narrow -– simply an event that raises more than it costs or where guests are asked for donations -– that it does not account for soliciting contributors later while reminding them of the special access they were afforded.
Inside the AP’s investigation into the ethics practices of the Supreme Court justices (AP) — An Associated Press examination of the ethics practices of the U.S. Supreme Court relied on documents obtained from more than 100 public records requests to public colleges, universities and other institutions that have hosted the justices over the past decade. To conduct its review, the AP surveyed local news stories and social media and obtained data from ScotusTracker, a website that logged justices’ activities, to develop a list of appearances over the past 10 years.In late 2022 and early this year, the AP submitted records requests to the public institutions on that list, citing individual state statutes that require the disclosure of certain documents to the public. The AP separately queried more than 100 private colleges, universities and charities that have also hosted justices or organized events for them, requesting that they provide the same information that was asked of public institutions. Some confirmed basic details of the visits, but few provided substantive information. The AP cataloged the travel and perks afforded to the justices. The AP also compiled lists of guests, including donors and politicians, who were invited to private receptions with justices and vetted them wherever possible against information in federal court records, Federal Election Commission filings, online photo albums of events and other publicly available data.The responses among public institutions varied widely. Some schools, including the University of Rhode Island, Ohio State University, Stony Brook University and the University of California, Davis, provided records free of charge. Some schools turned over thousands of pages of records, including George Mason University and the University of Kentucky. McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, produced 104 pages of records in March and then, following a $110 payment, shipped by mail a box of blue folders containing hundreds more pages. A reporting trip was also taken there so that a journalist could observe firsthand the site of a dinner that the college organized for Justice Clarence Thomas. Some institutions were less forthcoming. The AP went to the Illinois state attorney general to get a binding opinion directing the Chicago Public Library to produce documents related to a visit by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Other schools, including the University of Arizona, have said their search for records remained ongoing after more than six months. But some schools responded to records requests with fee demands that the AP deemed unreasonable. The initial fee cited by the University of Georgia for processing two requests was $18,800.50, though it was later reduced after the AP narrowed its request.
Judge to decide fate of two Oath Keepers who breached Capitol on Jan. 6 - U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Monday allowed two members of the right-wing militia Oath Keepers to waive their right to a jury trial,, kicking forward closing arguments and a possible verdict in the case related to Jan. 6 by a day. James Beeks and Donovan Crowl each formally agreed to a stipulated bench trial on two felony counts — conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and civil disorder — in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Justice Department prosecutors agreed to dismiss three other felony counts and a misdemeanor at the end of the proceedings. Instead of a federal jury in Washington, D.C., deciding the pair’s fate, Mehta will issue a verdict after hearing closing arguments expected Tuesday, based on a set of agreed-upon facts. Prosecutors and defense attorneys were still finalizing those details Monday. Because the defendants will agree to stipulations, they could argue that a reduced sentence is warranted if convicted. Beeks, an ex-Broadway star who is representing himself but has access to standby counsel, arrived at court Monday wearing a maroon suit over a black T-shirt showing a dog superimposed over an American flag. Beeks requested a type of judgment by the court be made in favor of one party without a full trial but was informed that wasn’t available in federal criminal cases. He also questioned whether the court has jurisdiction over him, signaling ties to the “sovereign citizen movement” he has referenced in court documents.
Trump co-conspirator seeks delay in Mar-a-Lago documents case - Former President Trump’s co-defendant in the Mar-a-Lago case, Walt Nauta, is pushing the court to delay a conference to discuss the handling of classified evidence in the case, teeing up a decision for Judge Aileen Cannon that could signal how quickly she plans to handle the case. A filing from the attorney of Nauta asks Cannon to reschedule the Friday conference, arguing he is due in court on another matter while the Florida-based attorney Nauta hired the day before his twice-scheduled arraignment — Sasha Dadan — is not yet prepared to participate. “Defense counsel cannot meaningfully opine on, ‘a discovery and motion schedule relating to any classified information,’ before their provisional security clearances, let alone complete clearances, have been approved. Nor is it feasible to expect Mr. Nauta’s local counsel to appear at a pretrial CIPA conference and to agree upon, ‘a discovery and motion schedule relating to any classified information,’ barely a week after she has been retained by Mr. Nauta,” attorney Stanley Woodward wrote in the motion. The conference is a routine part of the Classified Information Procedures Act (CIPA) and was granted by Cannon shortly after Trump was arraigned last month in Miami. It’s designed to lay out procedures for how to handle classified evidence, though attorneys are not required to have clearances to participate. Department of Justice (DOJ) prosecutors argue Woodward’s complaints about his own lack of a clearance are “inconsistent” with CIPA given the law allows that “any party may move for a pretrial conference to consider matters relating to classified information.” But they also chastise Woodward for apparently failing to undertake the paperwork required to get a clearance. “Perhaps more to the point, as of this writing, Mr. Woodward has yet to complete his Form SF-86, which is necessary for him to receive both an interim clearance and final adjudication, despite having been put in contact with the Litigation Security Group on June 12, some three-and-a-half weeks ago,” DOJ writes. Nauta’s arraignment, completed Thursday, came after it was twice delayed when he failed to retain local counsel and as he struggled to reach Florida due to flight delays.
Trump lawyers ask judge to postpone trial without setting a date in classified documents case (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump are asking a judge to postpone his criminal trial without setting a new date as he stands accused of illegally hoarding classifed documents at his Florida estate. In a late Monday filing, Trump’s defense attorneys said the case was “extraordinary,” with a large volume of documents and footage to be reviewed as the former president leads the race for the Republican nomination to unseat President Joe Biden. They cited challenges to select jurors and concerns about whether he would get a fair trial if scheduled before the November 2024 election. “The government’s request to begin a trial of this magnitude within six months of indictment is unreasonable, telling, and would result in a miscarriage of justice,” said the document filed by Chris Kise, one of Trump’s lawyers. The Justice Department had previously proposed to set the trial date for Dec. 11. Earlier on Monday, Trump’s lawyers filed paperwork saying they agreed with federal prosecutors to delay to next week a pretrial hearing that specifically discusses how classified information is handled in court. The hearing to discuss the Classified Information Procedures Act had previously been set for Friday. But an attorney for Trump’s valet Walt Nauta, who was charged alongside the former president, said he has another bench trial this week in Washington preventing him from appearing Friday in South Florida. The attorneys said in their filing that they can appear at the pretrial conference to go over the 1980 law on July 18, adding they had also checked with U.S. attorneys on moving the date. The judge in the case, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, still needs to agree to the new date. Trump and Nauta were charged in a 38-count indictment with conspiring to hide classified documents at Mar-a-Lago from federal investigators. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
Trump wants classified documents trial delayed until after 2024 election - Donald Trump on Monday called for a lengthy delay before he goes to trial for allegedly hoarding military secrets at his Mar-a-Lago estate, contending that proceeding while he remains a candidate for president would make it virtually impossible to seat an impartial jury.“Proceeding to trial during the pendency of a Presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are effectively (if not literally) directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges in the jury selection process and limit the Defendants’ ability to secure a fair and impartial adjudication,” attorneys for Trump and his personal aide and co-defendant, Walt Nauta, said in a court filing Monday night. Trump’s eagerness to push off a trial sets up the first significant test in the unprecedented, ultra-high-profile case for U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon, who is already weighing special counsel Jack Smith’s push for a December 2023 trial, one his team says is strongly in the public interest to begin as soon as possible.The defense filing says bluntly that this December is too soon to start a trial and urges Cannon not to set a trial date now, but makes clear that Trump’s lawyers oppose any trial that would start during the presidential election season, which will get underway in earnest late this year. Assuming Trump wins the Republican nomination, the defense position appears to urge nearly a year of delay beyond what prosecutors are proposing.The tactic is in keeping with Trump’s typical legal strategy: to drag out matters he’s facing as long as possible while hoping the legal landscape changes. But this time, it’s an effort to stave off a criminal trial that could result in a lengthy prison sentence if he’s convicted — the first ever prosecution of a former president.
A grand jury being seated Tuesday could decide whether Trump is charged over Georgia's 2020 election (AP) — A grand jury being seated Tuesday in Atlanta will likely consider whether criminal charges are appropriate for former President Donald Trump or his Republican allies for their efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has been investigating since shortly after Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in early 2021 and suggested the state’s top elections official could help him “find 11,780 votes,” just enough needed to beat Democrat Joe Biden. The 2 1/2-year investigation expanded to include an examination of a slate of Republican fake electors, phone calls by Trump and others to Georgia officials in the weeks after the 2020 election and unfounded allegations of widespread election fraud made to state lawmakers. Willis, a Democrat, is expected to present her case before one of two new grand juries being seated Tuesday. She has previously suggested that any indictments would likely come in August.
Trump special prosecutor Jack Smith's probe spent over $9 million so far - The special prosecutor pressing a criminal case against former President Donald Trump over sensitive national security documents kept at his Florida home incurred over $9 million in costs since being handed the assignment late last year, a newly released report shows. Special counsel Jack Smith tallied about $5.4 million in personnel, rent and other expenses on his own budget and prompted about $3.8 million in spending by other Justice Department agencies in the roughly four months after he was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland last November to lead the classified documents probe as well investigations related to efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results, according to figures DOJ released Friday.Those figures may dramatically underestimate Smith’s total spending since they only account for his activities through the end of March, excluding the period leading up to Trump’s unprecedented indictment in June as well as a significant escalation of the election-related probe. Smith impaneled a second grand jury in Florida shortly before issuing the charges against Trump. The report also highlights the unusual nature of Smith’s investigations and the strong reactions they have generated. Of the $3.8 million in off-budget expenses, more than half — $1.93 million — was spending by the U.S. Marshals Service, a DOJ spokesperson said. The agency provides a security detail for the special prosecutor, who has been seen flanked by deputy marshals as he commutes to and from his Washington office. The various probes Smith is overseeing were well underway by the time he took over and he has largely maintained the existing staffing, although he added some prosecutors in recent months. The new report doesn’t indicate how much the Justice Department spent on the related investigations in the months before Smith, a former head of DOJ’s Public Integrity Section, agreed to leave his job as a war-crimes prosecutor in Europe and return to Washington to take over the politically sensitive Trump probes. Still, even the early snapshot of Smith’s activity suggests an intense and active investigation that has been seen in glimpses at the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., where a parade of witnesses — including former Vice President Mike Pence — have appeared before the grand jury.
MyPillow auctions off equipment amid ‘massive cancellation,’ CEO Lindell says -- MyPillow is auctioning off hundreds of pieces of equipment and subleasing some manufacturing spaces amid what founder and CEO Mike Lindell calls “a massive, massive cancellation.”Lindell, in an interview with the Star Tribune, said MyPillow lost $100 million from “attacks by box stores, the shopping networks, the shopping channels, all of them did cancel culture on us.”Several retailers, including Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl’s, pulled MyPillow products from their shelves after Lindell continued to claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen from former President Trump. The Minnesota-based manufacturing company appears to be using the website K-BID Online Auctions to sell items including forklifts, conveyors belts, printers, electronics and commercial supplies. Lindell is currently facing a $1.3 billion defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems, which claims Lindell’s accusations of fraud, election rigging and conspiracy have hurt the company’s brand. Lindell was ordered in April to pay $5 million to a software developer who debunked Lindell’s data about the election after the MyPillow CEO vowed to pay that amount to anyone who could debunk his data allegedly proving election fraud. An arbitration panel ruled that software expert Robert Zeidman successfully disproved Lindell’s claims and ordered the payment within 30 days. Lindell refused to pay and filed a motion in May to have the ruling tossed out. Zeidman responded and filed a petition in a federal court in Minnesota to get Lindell to pay the $5 million plus 10 percent interest per year until it’s paid.
Hunter Biden prosecutor disputes GOP, IRS whistleblower claim --U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss said he never requested special counsel authority during his probe of Hunter Biden, directly countering claims from an IRS whistleblower and House Republicans who said he was blocked from aggressively pursuing the case. The letter, sent to Senate Judiciary Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), disputes testimony from IRS investigator Gary Shapley, who worked on the Biden investigation and said Weiss was denied special counsel status. Shapley also said Weiss was barred from bringing charges in D.C., where he claimed prosecutors would have been able to bring the strongest case. Echoing earlier statements that he had total control over the investigation, Weiss’s Monday letter is his clearest language yet in pushing back on Shapley’s testimony. There are two statutes on the books governing such appointments and the powers associated with them, Weiss notes, including a status allowing him to file charges outside his district of Delaware. “To clarify an apparent misperception and to avoid future confusion, I wish to make one point clear: in this case, I have not requested Special Counsel designation pursuant to 28 CFR § 600 et seq. Rather, I had discussions with Departmental officials regarding potential appointment under 28 U.S.C. § 515, which would have allowed me to file charges in a district outside my own without the partnership of the local U.S. Attorney,” Weiss wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill. “I was assured that I would be granted this authority if it proved necessary.“
FBI director to testify as GOP’s skepticism reaches fever pitch --FBI Director Christopher Wray is set to appear before one of the House’s most cantankerous committees as GOP members of the Judiciary panel prepare to raise a litany of grievances with the bureau. Wray’s appearance, part of regularly scheduled oversight, is his first after narrowly avoiding a censure vote from Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. It also comes shortly after the GOP released transcripts from a whistleblower complaining FBI agents working with the Justice Department failed to thoroughly investigate Hunter Biden, and as the GOP rages over the late Monday indictment of Trump adviser Gal Luft, who accused the Biden family of shady business dealings. The developments are the latest fuel to long-simmering tensions between the bureau and the GOP, which created a subcommittee to review “weaponization” of the federal government, focusing heavily on the FBI. The Judiciary committee announced the hearing saying that members “will be demanding answers from FBI Director Wray on the abuse of power in federal agencies.” In a tweet that used siren emojis as bullet points, Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), a member of the right-wing Freedom Caucus, said the hearing would raise questions about “the FBI’s recent rogue behavior,” a list that largely focused on investigations that have involved former President Trump. Wray, though a Trump appointee, has been at the center of the GOP-FBI grudge matchas Republicans increasingly double down on claims the bureau is politicized. It’s an assertion Wray has strongly rejected. “I accepted President Trump’s nomination to be FBI director because I believe deeply in the men and women of the agency that I worked with for so many years earlier in my career and I think are the finest professionals in this space on the planet,” Wray said in an April appearance before congressional appropriators. “Too often in today’s world, people’s standard for whether they think something was fair or objective or independent boils down to whether or not they like the outcome or not whether their side won or lost,” he added later.
Democratic jitters grow over Cornel West’s third-party bid | The Hill --Cornel West’s third-party presidential campaign is stirring up unpleasant flashbacks to 2016 for members of the Democratic Party, some of whom are starting to grow anxious about the effect it could have on President Biden’s reelection.West, a philosopher, Ivy League academic and leftist, recently announced he is newly registered with the Green Party as he seeks to challenge Biden and the eventual Republican nominee for the White House.Now, some prominent figures supporting Biden, from the head of the Democratic National Committee to veteran campaign hands, are already sounding the alarm about his quixotic White House run.“This is not the time in order to experiment. This is not the time to play around on the margins,” warned DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison, a close Biden confidant, over the weekend.Seven years ago, when Hillary Clinton lost to former President Donald Trump, many in her orbit blamed Green Party nominee Jill Stein as a factor that contributed to her defeat. Heading into 2024, Democrats worry West could emerge as a similar spoiler by earning just enough votes to fracture the coalition Biden needs to win.“In 2016, the Green Party played an outsized role in tipping the election to Donald Trump,” wrote David Axelrod, who served as former President Obama’s chief strategist,on Twitter last weekend. “Now, with Cornel West as their likely nominee, they could easily do it again. Risky business.”The concerns come as Democrats stare down yet another possible race against Trump. After multiple indictments and other potentially consequential legal entanglements, he’s polling well ahead of his rivals for the Republican nomination, and Democrats are already preparing for the third consecutive general election with him as their opponent.
GOP states quit the program that fights voter fraud. Now they’re scrambling. - Over the past year and a half, eight Republican-led states quit a nonpartisan program designed to keep voter rolls accurate and up to date.Top Republican election officials in those states publicly argued the program was mismanaged. The conspiracy theorists who cheered them on falsely insisted it was a front for liberals to take control of elections. But experts say the program, known as the Electronic Registration Information Center, was among the best nationwide tool states had to catch people trying to vote twice in the same election. Now, those Republican-led states who left — and other states who lost access to their data — are scrambling to police so-called “double voters” ahead of the presidential election in 2024.In recent months, elections officials in Ohio — one of the states that led the flight from ERIC — and elsewhere have been quietly convening leaders from dozens of states to talk about ways they can still work together to try to catch double-voters.“The whole goal is to have something in place, state-to-state, prior to the 2024 election,” Amanda Grandjean, Ohio’s assistant secretary of state and senior adviser, told POLITICO, the first time she has spoken publicly about the efforts.The scramble by states to fill a security gap left open by exiting ERIC comes at a critical time. Elections officials face ongoing scrutiny about the accuracy of voter rolls after extensive — and untrue — accusations of widespread fraud in the past two election cycles. The 2024 elections are getting closer.Grandjean said 27 states have expressed interest in the effort, with varying degrees of commitment.
'Secretly Stealing Everything': Google Hit With Lawsuit Over New AI Data-Scraping Privacy Policy --Google is now facing a lawsuit following its recent privacy policy update that accuses the tech giant of misusing large amounts of data, including copyrighted material, in artificial intelligence (AI) training. The class-action lawsuit was filed on July 11 by eight individuals who claim to represent “millions of class members” — internet users and copyright holders — who have had their privacy and property rights violated in light of Google’s recent updates to its privacy policy.In its opening statement, the plaintiffs accuse Google of “harvesting data in secret” to build its AI products without consent.“It has very recently come to light that Google has been secretly stealing everything ever created and shared on the internet by hundreds of millions of Americans.”Google’s privacy policy changes now allow it to take publicly available data for artificial intelligence (AI) training purposes.The lawsuit points out that Google’s decision not only violates rights, but gives it an “unfair advantage” compared with its competitors, which lawfully obtain or purchase data to train AI. Ryan Clarkson of Clarkson Law Firm, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said in a statement that:“Google must understand, once and for all: it does not own the internet, it does not own our creative works, it does not own our expressions of our personhood, pictures of our families and children, or anything else simply because we share it online.”The plaintiffs argued that “publicly available” does not and has never entailed that it is “free to use for any purpose.”According to the lawsuit, Google could potentially owe upward of $5 billion in damages. It also requested a court order requiring Google to obtain users’ explicit permission first. This includes allowing users to opt out of its “illicit data collection,” along with the ability to delete already existing data or provide “fair compensation” to owners of the data.Earlier this week, author and comedian Sarah Silverman, together with two other authors, filed a lawsuit against ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Meta for their use of copyrighted work without permission in AI training. Prior to that, OpenAI was hit with another lawsuit for alleged data scraping.
Follow the crypto: In its fight against fentanyl, DHS is tracing cryptocurrency used by Mexican drug cartels - The Department of Homeland Security has ramped up its effort to stop fentanyl and the chemicals used to make it from entering the U.S. by tracing cryptocurrency used by Mexican cartels, according to two U.S. officials involved in the strategy. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told NBC News in an interview at the International Mail Facility at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on Thursday that DHS “is seeking to hold individuals accountable, seizing their property and also interdicting and interrupting their financial flow.” The U.S. government faces a significant hurdle in stopping fentanyl production because the chemicals needed to make it are largely produced in China and shipped to Mexico, where cartels manufacture the drug and then bring it across the U.S. border to sell. Although the chemicals are controlled substances in China, it remains the largest supplier of precursor chemicals. Fentanyl is now the No. 1 killer of Americans aged 18 to 45, according to Families Against Fentanyl, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it claims the lives of more than 70,000 Americans each year. Mayorkas told NBC News the Biden administration is negotiating with China to get its cooperation to stop the production of the chemicals that make fentanyl. “We’re hoping that the negotiations that we are commencing with China’s representatives will actually create some space for us to address with our Chinese counterparts the scourge of fentanyl precursors,” Mayorkas said. Under increasing pressure to take action by families who have lost loved ones and Republicans who blame the Biden administration’s border policy, DHS announced in April that it has put more pressure on Mexico to stop the manufacture and distribution of fentanyl. In just the first two months of the stepped-up DHS campaign to stop fentanyl at the border, more than 10,000 pounds of the drug were seized by Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations and 284 people were arrested, according to a June statement. The next phase of the strategy will seek to go after high-ranking members of cartels that traffic fentanyl by increasing manpower and using forensic accounting to trace cryptocurrency used to buy precursor chemicals. A seized pill press machine is displayed at a DEA news conference in Los Angeles in 2021.
Taylor Swift agreed to FTX partnership, but the crypto exchange bailed, source tells CNBC --Taylor Swift signed and agreed to a sponsorship deal with bankrupt crypto exchange FTX after months of discussion before executives at FTX decided not to go through with the deal, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC.The nature of the agreement, previously reported by The New York Times on Thursday, contradicts public messaging about the nature of the failed FTX-Swift deal. Public statements by a class-action attorney lauded Swift’s due diligence efforts and said that the artist asked the exchange to explain why its listed assets were not considered unregistered securities.But Swift did ultimately agree to the deal, the person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The signed agreement was sent to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s email inbox, where it remained unanswered for a period of a few weeks, the person told CNBC, adding that ultimately, a group of FTX executives persuaded Bankman-Fried not to follow through with the reported $100 million deal.Three other sources familiar with the matter told The New York Times that Swift’s team signed the deal with FTX after six months of negotiations, and that Bankman-Fried ultimately pulled the plug.The person familiar with the matter asked to be kept anonymous due to ongoing federal and bankruptcy proceedings. The existence of an FTX-Swift partnership was first reported by The Financial Times.FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2022. Bankman-Fried faces multiple federal charges, including fraud and campaign finance violations. Three other FTX executives — Gary Wang, Caroline Ellison and Nishad Singh — have pleaded guilty to various federal charges and are cooperating with the government’s prosecution of Bankman-Fried.
FTX Sues Sam Bankman-Fried, Others to Recover $323 Million Spent on DAAG – Bloomberg -- Former FTX executives massively overpaid to acquire a Swiss firm where a close associate of Sam BankmanFried worked, the failed crypto platform alleged in a lawsuit that seeks to recover at least $323.5 million from beneficiaries of a deal that expanded the platform in Europe. FTX Trading Ltd. said in a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Delaware bankruptcy court that Bankman-Fried and other executives conducted no due diligence, nor engaged in price negotiations before offering to purchase financial services firm Digital Assets DA AG, which was later renamed FTX Europe. The complaint seeks to recover funds FTX paid to a group of DAAG shareholders including an alleged close associate of BankmanFried.
FTX spent $376 million to get a $2 million license in Europe. Now its caretaker CEO wants most of that money back -- Since November, after the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, a caretaker estate has been trying to unwind the disastrous investments of Sam Bankman-Fried. Led by veteran lawyer John Ray, who previously managed Enron’s bankruptcy, lawyers have been combing through the decisions that led to the downfall of the $30 billion empire. Late Wednesday, the new FTX management team revealed its newest finding, alleging that the company under Bankman-Fried had recklessly spent over $350 million in a bid to win an operating license in Europe. The estate is seeking to claw back the funds. According to a new lawsuit filed by the caretaker estate, Bankman-Fried’s FTX pursued an acquisition of a Swiss financial services firm called Digital Assets DA AG, or DAAG, valuing the company at $400 million. The estate alleges that FTX sought the acquisition not only because DAAG’s founders could provide access to the European market by acquiring necessary operating licenses, but also because DAAG’s founders were close associates of Bankman-Fried. FTX ended up acquiring DAAG for $376 million, rebranding it as FTX Europe. The investment did not pay off. According to the lawsuit, FTX Europe’s new executives lavishly spent the company’s money, with FTX Europe head Patrick Gruhn allegedly hiring his own consulting firm with FTX Europe capital and using the proceeds on property and personal expenditures, including a $146,450 armored Cadillac Escalade, as well as the salaries of a butler, a full-time chef, and a housekeeper. Part of the spending stemmed from a generous bonus given to Gruhn and another FTX Europe executive, Robin Matzke, for acquiring a Cyprus investment firm that would grant the company one of its desired operating licenses. FTX Europe was able to complete the acquisition, and gain the license, for €2 million (about $2.2 million today). The lawsuit alleges that FTX’s investment in DAAG was clouded by the relationship of one executive, Brandon Williams, with Bankman-Fried. Williams had promised Bankman-Fried that DAAG’s leadership team had close relationships with regulators, although it never managed to attain desired licenses in either Switzerland or Lichtenstein. “The hollowness of Williams’s and Gruhn’s claims and the inexistent value of those relationship[s] for the FTX Group would have been revealed by even a modicum of regulatory due diligence,” wrote the lawyers, who are seeking to claw back over $323 million from the former FTX Europe executives. Williams and Gruhn did not immediately respond to a request for comment.3:07 AM
FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Is Getting Lonely and Needs a Maid - Lawyers for disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried are requesting a judge ease conditions on some visitors to his parents’ home in the run-up to his criminal trial.In a filing submitted to Manhattan federal judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday, Christian Everdall, a lawyer for Bankman-Fried, asked that Kaplan grant permission to a list of guests to visit his family’s home in Palo Alto, California where he currently is under house arrest. Bankman-Fried is facing prosecution for his role in the collapse of his crypto exchange, FTX, and trading firm, Alameda Research last November. He is facing a litany of allegations, which include wire fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations.Everdall filed the list of potential guests under seal, but he said it includes “close friends and colleagues of Bankman-Fried’s parents and household help.” He added that the guests have already agreed to play by the rules.“These individuals are aware of and will abide by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions, including the prohibition on sharing ‘Prohibited Electronic Devices’ ," wrote Everdall. Those devices include smartphones, tablets, computers and any video game platforms or devices that allow chat and voice communication.Per Bankman-Fried’s bail agreement, a security guard needs to be present to scan visitors for prohibited devices and ensure they sign an electronic visitor log. These conditions can only be waived if someone has been granted pre-approval from the court.Since being released into his parents’ custody, authorities have been cautious about what kind of access to the outside world should be permitted to Bankman-Fried.In February, Kaplan granted permission to federal prosecutors to forbid Bankman-Fried from using the encrypted-messaging service Signal due to its auto-delete function for fear of potential witness tampering. Prosecutors have also pushed to install spyware on the phones of Bankman-Fried’s parents, something that proved difficult for Bankman-Fried’s legal team.But Everdell told Kaplan in his filing that the government “consents” to his visitor request, and raised no objections to filing the guest list under seal. He argued that privacy considerations outweighed any public interest in denying the motion.
Alleged crypto crook Sam Bankman-Fried asks judge to allow 'close friends' to visit -- Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, asked the judge on Thursday overseeing his criminal prosecution to allow certain people to visit his parents’ house, where he’s confined while out on bail, without the need for a security guard to be present. Defense attorneys described these people as “close friends and colleagues of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents and household help that regularly visit the house” who should be exempt from the security procedures otherwise required by the terms of Bankman-Fried’s bail. “These individuals are aware of and will abide by Mr. Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions, including the prohibition on sharing 'Prohibited Electronic Devices' with Mr. Bankman-Fried,” defense attorneys wrote, adding that prosecutors consent to the request. Bankman-Fried, 31, has been charged with multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy that accuse him of misappropriating billions of dollars in FTX customer and investor money. He has pleaded not guilty and was released on a $250 million bond, where he remains at his parents' house in Palo Alto, California. His bail conditions require certain security measures to be followed when any visitors come to the house, including a security guard to screen the visitors for any electronic devices. The defense asked that the names of the friends SBF wants to host be kept secret.
Ex-Celsius CEO Mashinsky charged in latest DOJ crypto case -- The former chief executive officer of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network was charged with fraud and sued by three regulatory agencies over the company's collapse. Alex Mashinsky, 57, was also charged with attempting to manipulate crypto currencies in federal court in New York Thursday. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission also filed lawsuits against Mashinsky and the company.Prosecutors claim that from 2018 through June 2022, Mashinsky "orchestrated a scheme to defraud customers of Celsius Network LLC and its related entities," according to the indictment unsealed Thursday.Celsius was one of several high-profile crypto firms that imploded last year. The company gained popularity paying high interest rates on digital-asset deposits. But following the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin and a downturn in the digital-asset markets the company was left with a giant hole in its balance sheet and unable to meet an influx of customer withdrawals.Mashinsky's lawyer didn't immediately reply to an email seeking comment. A second company official, Chief Revenue Officer Roni Cohen-Pavon, was also arrested, prosecutors said.The price of CEL token issued by Celsius dropped about 6% to around 15 cents, according to data from CoinMarketCap, after the SEC sued the lender and Mashinsky. It had traded as high as $8 in June 2021.Mashinsky is the latest crypto industry figure to face charges after a market downturn exposed shady practices and in some cases, fraud, across the sector. Mashinsky, who helped start Celsius in 2017, has been under intense scrutiny from multiple government agencies since his firm filed for bankruptcy and declared a $1.19 billion deficit 12 months ago.
Former Celsius CEO arrested, company agrees to pay $4.7 billion settlement - Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky was arrested Thursday on federal securities fraud charges, a source told CNBC as the bankrupt crypto exchange agreed to pay a $4.7 billion settlement with government regulators.The exchange was also charged by the SEC and CFTC with scheming to defraud investors out of billions. The $4.7 billion settlement is one of the largest in the FTC’s history, close to the record $5 billion fine levied against Meta in 2019, and highlights what the FTC described as repeated deceptions by Celsius and Mashinsky.Federal prosecutors also charged Mashinsky with securities, commodities, and wire fraud, as well as various securities manipulation and fraud charges. If convicted, Mashinsky and a co-defendant, Roni Cohen-Pavon, face decades in prison.Mashinsky pleaded not guilty to the fraud charges in New York federal court.“Mashinsky misrepresented, among other things, the safety of Celsius’s yield-generating activites, Celsius’s profitability, the long-term sustainability of Celsius’ high rewards rates, and the risks associated with depositing crypto assets with Celsius,” federal prosecutors said in a charging document. The settlement, announced by the FTC, will not be paid until the company is able to return what remains of customer assets in bankruptcy proceedings.The concurrent SEC proceedings are against Mashinsky and Celsius, and like the federal charges allege that Mashinsky misled investors and fraudulently manipulated the price of Celsius’ exchange token, CEL.The SEC has alleged that Mashinsky and his company “misrepresented” the company’s “central business model and the risks to investors” by allegedly claiming Celsius did not engage in risky trading and paid most, but not all, of the company’s revenue over to investors.“None of these claims,” the SEC alleged, were true. Celsius had allegedly experienced, for example, “hundreds of millions of dollars” worth of defaults on its institutional loans.Both the charging documents from New York federal prosecutors and the SEC complaint also describe Celsius’ exchange token as a security. The definition of a security and the SEC’s oversight over crypto markets has been hotly contested by other crypto exchanges in recent months.“Alex vehemently denies the allegations brought today,” Mashinsky’s counsel Jonathan Ohring told CNBC. “He looks forward to vigorously defending himself in court against these baseless charges.”Earlier this year, New York prosecutors accused Mashinsky of orchestrating a $20 billion fraud against investors. CNBC previously reported on pervasive, yearslong issues that plagued the crypto exchange well before it filed for bankruptcy in 2022.
Binance reportedly lays off over 1,000 employees as top crypto exchange grapples with SEC lawsuit and looming DOJ investigation -The world’s largest crypto exchange has reportedly laid off more than 1,000 employees amid a blockbuster lawsuit from the Securities and Exchange Commission as well as impending enforcement actions from the U.S. Justice Department.The cuts have happened over recent weeks, according to a source who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, and could end up reducing Binance’s staff of approximately 8,000 by one-third. Customer service employees were disproportionately affected, former employees told the Journal, and the layoffs were distributed globally. An employee at the company confirmed toFortune that there had been layoffs but didn’t specify the exact number.The exchange, headed by founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, had previously acknowledged a churn of employees in May, shortly before the SEC filed 13 charges against Binance and Zhao in early June. But the scale of the layoffs hadn’t been previously reported, and company representatives claimed the moves were simply a way to ensure “whether we have the right talent.”A spokesperson for Binance resent the same company statement issued when reports of the layoffs first became public. “This is not a case of rightsizing, but rather, reevaluating whether we have the right talent and expertise in critical roles,” he wrote.The reported cuts follow the departure of key executives last Thursday in response to Zhao’s handling of the Justice Department’s investigation into him and the exchange. Executives who tendered their resignation included general counsel Hon Ng, chief strategy officer Patrick Hillmann, and SVP for compliance Steven Christie. Matthew Price, who oversaw global investigations and intelligence, had left earlier.And during midyear performance reviews, management reportedly asked U.S.-based employees whether they would be willing to relocate to other countries. Those who said they wouldn’t were let go, according to Bloomberg.The spate of exits could push the exchange into further chaos as it grapples with a flurry of litigation from U.S. regulators. In March, the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission sued Binance and Zhao, alleging, among other accusations, that the firm illegally and intentionally courted U.S. customers for its international branch.In June, the SEC followed suit. “We allege that Zhao and Binance entities engaged in an extensive web of deception, conflicts of interest, lack of disclosure, and calculated evasion of the law,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.And since then, rumors of an impending indictment against Binance and Zhao have swirled, amid reports of a long-running Justice Department investigation into the firm and its founder and CEO.
Ripple tokens sold to public are not securities, judge says - A federal judge ruled that the Ripple Labs token is a security when sold to institutional investors but not the general public, a long-awaited decision that was widely hailed as a victory for the crypto industry over the SEC. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres in New York on Thursday said that the crypto firm's sales of the XRP token to sophisticated investors met the test for an investment contract under federal securities law because those buyers "would have understood that Ripple was pitching a speculative value proposition for XRP with potential profits." But the judge said that didn't apply to programmatic investors, meaning the broader public buying crypto on secondary markets. She said there was no evidence that such investors could parse the many statements made by Ripple about XRP. The judge said many statements cited by the Securities and Exchange Commission may not have been shared with the broader public. XRP soared on the ruling, and was up around 27% in early afternoon trading on Thursday, with many industry figures and experts highlighting the judge's ruling on secondary-market crypto sales as win. Whether cryptocurrencies are securities has long been a major question hanging over the industry, which has argued it's not subject to the jurisdiction of the SEC and other regulators. "My overall impression is this is a positive decision for the digital asset industry," said David Tramel Stabile, a Miami-based partner at Winston & Strawn specializing in crypto. "The critical component of the decision is the conclusion that secondary market purchases of XRP do not constitute purchases of securities, as buyers could not have known if their payments of money went to Ripple or someone else," he said. The SEC didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, but the ruling comes as the regulator has aggressively targeted crypto firms for allegedly selling unregistered securities. Earlier on Thursday, the SEC sued Celsius Network and its former chief executive officer, Alex Mashinsky, who was also charged with fraud by federal prosecutors in New York. David Brill, former deputy general counsel of bankrupt crypto broker Voyager Digital, said Torres's ruling may be a "watershed moment for the classification of digital assets." He said it boded particularly well for Coinbase Global, which was sued by the SEC last month.
Ripple Labs notches landmark win in SEC case over XRP cryptocurrency (Reuters) - Ripple Labs Inc did not violate federal securities law by selling its XRP token on public exchanges, a U.S. judge ruled on Thursday, a landmark legal victory for the cryptocurrency industry that sent the value of XRP soaring. XRP was up 75% by late afternoon on Thursday, according to Refinitiv Eikon data. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres was the first win for a cryptocurrency company in a case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission -- though it did also give the SEC a partial victory. While the decision is specific to the facts of the case, it likely will provide ammunition for other crypto firms battling the SEC over whether their products fall under the regulator's jurisdiction. An SEC spokesperson said the agency was pleased with part of the ruling in which the judge held that Ripple violated federal securities law by selling XRP directly to sophisticated investors. It is possible for the ruling to be appealed once a final judgment is issued, or if the judge allows it before then. The SEC spokesperson said the regulator was reviewing the decision. Ripple Chief Executive Brad Garlinghouse in an interview called the ruling "a huge win for Ripple but more importantly for the industry overall in the U.S." Coinbase, the largest U.S. crypto exchange, said it would again allow trading of XRP on its platform. "We’ve read Judge Torres’ thoughtful decision. We’ve carefully reviewed our analysis. It’s time to relist," Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal said on Twitter. The SEC had accused the company and its current and former chief executives of conducting a $1.3 billion unregistered securities offering by selling XRP, which Ripple's founders created in 2012. The case has been closely watched in the cryptocurrency industry, which disputes the SEC's assertion that the vast majority of crypto tokens are securities and subject to its strict investor protection rules. The agency has brought more than 100 enforcement crypto actions, claiming various tokens are securities, but many of those have ended in settlements. In the few cases that have gone to court, judges have agreed with the SEC that the crypto assets at issue were securities, which unlike assets such as commodities are strictly regulated, must be registered with the SEC by their issuer and require detailed disclosures to inform investors of potential risks. Torres ruled that Ripple's XRP sales on public cryptocurrency exchanges were not offers of securities under the law, because purchasers did not have a reasonable expectation of profit tied to Ripple's efforts. Those sales were "blind bid/ask transactions," she said, in which buyers "could not have known if their payments of money went to Ripple, or any other seller of XRP."
Crypto companies emboldened by court win over SEC - A crypto company’s surprise win in federal court over the Securities and Exchange Commission is giving the industry new hope that it can curb SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s power over the $1 trillion market.Judge Analisa Torres in New York ruled Thursday that Ripple Labs did not violate U.S. securities laws in $1.4 billion in sales of its XRP token — a decision that has spurred executives, lobbyists and industry allies in Congress to try to seize momentum on the future of crypto regulation back from the SEC.Lawmakers like Reps. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), two of Capitol Hill’s most fervent crypto supporters, say the decision underscores the need for Congress to draft new rules, despite Gensler’s insistence that he has the authority to regulate the industry. Executives say the ruling could hinder enforcement actions underway at the agency. And other crypto companies may use it as a basis to resist SEC efforts to get them to register their tokens as securities, which would subject them to stricter scrutiny.“What Ripple did is mark the end of a stage in crypto [of] this idea that the SEC could by itself resolve the hard questions of crypto,” said Justin Slaughter, a former SEC and CFTC official who is now policy director at venture capital firm Paradigm, a major crypto investor. “For those of us who have studied this carefully, the cracks in this approach were apparent from the start. It was a house built on a bad foundation, but, now, I think it’s apparent to everybody.”Over the past year, the SEC has waged a sweeping crackdown on crypto that has ensnared the world’s biggest digital asset companies in Binance, Coinbase and Kraken, alleged fraud and mismanagement at some firms, and stoked fears among Democrats in Congress that consumer protections are lacking. Gensler and the agency have been driven by their belief that most of the thousands of tokens in circulation are unregistered securities that must be regulated like stocks and bonds, and they’ve been backed by a near-perfect record in the courts — until now.Torres’ decision is clearing the way for a new power struggle between the SEC and crypto.The judge, who is based in the SEC’s home court of the Southern District of New York, did find that Ripple violated securities laws by not registering the XRP token in $728 million worth of sales to institutional investors. However, in what is being seen as the biggest loss yet for Washington’s broader crypto enforcement campaign, Torres also said that in other cases — such as when investors buy XRP on a crypto exchange — the token does not fall under securities laws.“The SEC has just suffered a massive loss here,” Ripple Chief Legal Officer Stu Alderoty said in an interview. “Their regulation-by-enforcement strategies that have crippled the crypto economy in the U.S. have been humbled by this decision.”
BankThink: Gensler's crypto onslaught will eventually be halted by the courts | American Banker -The key sentence in the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down the student loan forgiveness plan is this: "The question here is not whether something should be done; it is who has authority to do it." Exactly. The Supreme Court struck down the $500 billion student loan forgiveness plan constructed by the U.S. Department of Education because it is Congress, and not the executive branch, which has authority to fashion a comprehensive student loan forgiveness policy — if there is to be one. This should come as no surprise to anyone. In 2021, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, addressed this very question and explained: "People think that the president has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an act of Congress." This same separation of powers issue is now winding its way through the courts, presenting the question of who gets to decide how the trillion-dollar cryptocurrency industry will be regulated. Nearly everyone involved in crypto now agrees that a regulatory regime is sorely needed in the U.S. Nobody wants another FTX — most especially those who actually invest in crypto. So, as the Supreme Court succinctly put it, it's "not whether something should be done; it is who has the authority to do it." In our constitutional system, it is Congress that has the authority to establish a regulatory regime for the emerging crypto ecosystem — not the SEC. As Supreme Court jurisprudence shows, only Congress can decide major policy questions affecting a significant segment of our economy.
BlackRock has a 'responsibility to democratize investing,' including in crypto, Larry Fink says -BlackRock 's move into crypto fits into the asset management giant's broader mission of creating products that are easy to use and cheap for investors, CEO Larry Fink said Friday. "We believe we have a responsibility to democratize investing. We've done a great job, and the role of ETFs in the world is transforming investing. And we're only at the beginning of that," Fink Fink said on "Squawk on the Street."BlackRock applied for a spot bitcoin ETF on June 15, which appeared to spur a rally in cryptocurrencies and a flurry of similar filings from other asset managers. The initial filing for the iShares Bitcoin Trust did not include a management fee. The Securities and Exchange Commission has previously rejected dozens of applications for similar funds, but BlackRock's involvement and the proposed surveillance sharing agreement in the filing is seen by many in the crypto industry as a sign that momentum is shifting. "We are working with our regulators because, as in any new market, if BlackRock's name is going to be on it, we're going to make sure that it's safe and sound and protected," Fink said. Fink had previously been critical of crypto, saying in 2017 that the popularity of digital currencies was do in large part to money laundering. However, interest from clients and the high cost of transactions motivated BlackRock to take a closer look at entering the space, Fink said. He also added that crypto can serve a diversification role in investor portfolios. "It has a differentiating value versus other asset classes, but more importantly, because it's so international it's going to transcend any one currency," Fink said. The CEO declined to discuss the spot bitcoin ETF directly, saying he is prohibited from doing so while the filing is with the SEC. BlackRock reported its second-quarter results on Friday, earning $9.28 in adjusted earnings per share on $4.46 billion in revenue. The company said it now has more than $9 trillion in assets under management.
Bipartisan duo revamps crypto bill with juiced-up consumer protection A bipartisan duo in the Senate, Cynthia Lummis and Kirsten Gillibrand, unveiled their latest effort to regulate the U.S. crypto industry, placing greater emphasis on consumer protection following a string of high-profile company failures last year. Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, first introduced their bill last June. At the time, the popular crypto stablecoin, TerraUSD, had already collapsed but the vast majority of the eventual 2022 turmoil, culminating with the implosion of trading giant FTX, was still to come. Now, the senators are revamping their prior effort by including measures they say will help prevent another FTX, whose founder Sam Bankman-Fried has since been criminally charged and faces accusations that he mishandled billions of dollars of customer funds. The bill would require firms to segregate client assets and impose third-party custody requirements, according to a document detailing the updates to the legislative proposal. It would also create new advertising standards for marketing crypto and require exchanges to show proof that they have enough assets to cover customer balances. The effort is ambitious, creating a framework to give the Commodity Futures Trading Commission more authority to oversee certain tokens and addressing everything from sanctions compliance and taxes to stablecoin regulation. The bipartisan nature of the bill gives it a promising start, but any crypto legislation would have to overcome significant hurdles to get enacted this year. The 2024 campaign season is right around the corner, meaning there's less time to debate complex issues and garner the level of support needed to move this type of overhaul across the finish line. The Securities and Exchange Commission has also pushed hard against efforts to rewrite rules to accommodate the digital-asset industry. Lummis told CNBC's Squawk Box Wednesday that the bill is necessary to prevent consumers from getting "burned." "This legislation is not only needed to protect consumers, but so there are rules of the road for these companies," she said.
Here's how the White House's cyber initiatives could affect banks - A new cybersecurity plan the White House released Thursday could have a mix of implications for banks: Liability for breaches could shift away from responsible software developers, and banks would be held more accountable for their vendor choices and could be required to provide ingredient lists for the software programs they develop in-house.On Thursday, the White House released an implementation plan for the national cybersecuritystrategy that it announced in March, revealing some details on President Joe Biden's plans to shift liability for data breaches and insecure software to larger and more capable companies, such as banks.The only specific mention of financial services in the document pertained to global anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism, but experts said that as critical infrastructure entities, banks will also feel the impact of plans.One of the main changes the White House hopes to make with its cybersecurity strategy has to do with liability for data breaches and insecure software. The administration hopes to ensure "that the biggest, most capable, and best-positioned entities – in the public and private sectors – assume a greater share of the burden for mitigating cyber risk," according to a press releaseaccompanying the implementation plan. But for the most part, the implementation plan focuses on what companies can do to limit their liability for vulnerabilities in software. The plan specifically references part of the National Cybersecurity Strategy from March that discusses a "safe harbor framework to shield from liability companies that securely develop and maintain their software products and services."As for other specifics in the implementation plan, the first element is to "establish an initiative on cyber regulatory harmonization," according to the document. Cyber regulatory harmonization has been a top concern for banks, making the initiative a welcome sight for many bankers.
The new power couple taking on Wall Street: J.D. Vance and Elizabeth Warren -- Sen. J.D. Vance — the Trump-backing former venture capitalist — is trying to lead Republicans in a new cause: cracking down on big banks. Following a Senate campaign in which he pledged to prioritize rural America over titans of industry, the Ohio lawmaker is using a seat on the Banking Committee to flex his populist bona fides, teaming up with Democrats including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Dick Durbin of Illinois on bills that the industry’s biggest players despise — while championing legislation that protects smaller banks. He’s taking a lead role in advancing bipartisan proposals that would penalize bank executives when their companies fail, make it harder for giant lenders to get bigger by acquiring other banks and rein in credit card fees. Along the way, he’s had some success in recruiting fellow Republicans to the cause — creating fresh headaches for big bank lobbyists, who are gearing up to fight the Vance-backed policies. Warren, who enlisted Vance to build GOP support for a bill to claw back compensation from executives of failed banks, said he’s been “terrific to work with.” “We have to figure out what is the actual policy of our government, and how do we need to change it to fit with a healthy small and medium regional bank ecosystem,” Vance said in an interview. “I don’t think that’s true right now.” Vance’s approach to the most powerful financial institutions — similar to pushes he’s made to strengthen rail safety requirements and curb airline fees — is the latest example of an emerging GOP shift as a new crop of Republican politicians challenge the party’s pro-business, free-market ideology. Fueled by former President Donald Trump, it’s upending conservative politics and stirring tensions within the party about how it approaches the economy. “There’s a broad attempt to rethink the way that Republicans govern, and Vance is clearly a leader of that,” said Matt Stoller, a progressive who serves as director of research at the American Economic Liberties Project. “He wants to rebuild the banking industry to bring it closer to Ohio, closer to local communities — and then kind of rebuild a more decentralized banking system.” “It’s not going to be good for [JPMorgan Chase CEO] Jamie Dimon — but it’ll generally be good for most bankers, and for a lot of Americans who need banks,” Stoller added.
Fed's Daly: Supervisory 'slowness' led to Silicon Valley Bank failure -- Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco president Mary Daly admits that while bank supervisors in her district share some blame for failing to detect weakness in Silicon Valley Bank ahead of its failure in March, any response should focus on the Fed system as a whole. The reason is that bank supervision as a practice is directed by the Fed's Board of Governors in Washington rather than by the regional banks, Daly said. "Supervision in the Fed is a system effort, and while many of us do not own the decisions — those rest solely with the Board of Governors and Michael Barr, the vice chair [for supervision] — we all own the outcomes," said Daly, speaking at an event at the Brookings Institution Monday morning. "So when the outcomes aren't what we want them to be, we all work collectively to make them better going forward." Daly went on to say that a top-down approach to bank supervision and regulation exists by design to ensure that banks in different regions of the country can expect uniform supervisory practices no matter where they are headquartered. "This is a feature of the [Federal Reserve] system that's built in to get continuity, and it's also because Congress gave the Board of Governors the responsibility of supervising and regulating banks, not the Reserve Banks," Daly said. The San Francisco Fed has been under fire in recent months as the regional bank whose supervisory experts were charged with monitoring Silicon Valley Bank — the second-largest bank failure in American history. This set off a broad reckoning in policy circles about the safety of the banking sector and regulators' ability to detect and correct shortcomings. Daly said that one conclusion highlighted in Barr's April post-mortem report on Silicon Valley Bank's failure was an overly deliberative process that discouraged supervisors from taking action against banks without total certainty that such actions are warranted. Making bank supervision more proactive is an important way that it could be improved across the Fed system, she said. "There's a slowness from when things are spotted and when enforcement actions or other things are taken. That pipeline is not very speedy at any juncture," Daly said. "That's not just a San Francisco thing or a Board of Governors thing; that is a way you can improve the supervisory process. The bias has to be to raise issues as opposed to waiting until you have every shred of evidence, so that's a lesson."
Fed's Barr optimistic about banks' ability to meet final Basel rules | American Banker — Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr expressed confidence that the upcoming capital requirements to be proposed by the Fed would be well within reach for midsize and large banks. Speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington on Monday, Barr said the capital adjustments aim to align the U.S. with the Basel III endgame guidelines, which standardize risk-based requirements calculations and add regulatory safeguards, such as requiring large firms to account for unrealized losses in their available-for-sale securities. He said forthcoming proposals would primarily apply to banks with assets above $100 billion — a threshold that would encompass the three midsize banks that failed earlier this year. "Even banks of this size can cause stress that spreads to other institutions and threatens financial stability," Barr said. Barr estimated that the new proposals would require the country's largest banks to hold an additional 2 percentage points of capital, or an extra $2 of capital for every $100 of risk-weighted assets. Barr believes that most banks are already well-positioned to meet these requirements. "We estimate that banks [not already adequately capitalized] would be able to build the requisite capital through retained earnings in less than 2 years, even while maintaining their dividends," Barr said. Barr also highlighted the need to update the standards for calculating banks' risk-based requirements to better reflect credit, trading and operational risks. He proposed replacing banks' individual risk estimates with a standardized approach, saying current internal models have inherent deficiencies. "Banks tend to underestimate their credit risk because they have a strong incentive to lower their capital requirements," he said. "And estimates of credit risk for similar exposures can vary substantially across firms" In terms of market risk measurement, Barr suggested that the proposed changes would better align market risk capital requirements with actual market risk exposure, while providing supervisors with improved tools. The proposal, he said, would still allow banks to use internal models for capturing complex market risks but would exclude certain hard-to-model risks. Additionally, the proposal would require firms to model risk at the level of individual trading desks for specific asset classes, rather than at the firm-wide level. Barr also said the forthcoming proposed rule will aim to introduce a standardized model for measuring operational losses. This model would approximate a firm's operational risk charge based on its activities and adjust the charge based on historical operational losses with the hopes of improving risk sensitivity and incentivizing firms to mitigate their operational risks. Barr emphasized that the use of such a standardized model would help reduce the regulatory burden on banks, as they would not need to develop internal credit risk and operational risk models for calculating regulatory capital.
Hsu backs Fed's Barr in call for strengthening capital requirements — Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said there is "strong alignment" between federal regulators about the need for stronger capital requirements in the banking system.Hsu's comments were delivered during a live-streamed event hosted by American Banker. They came just one hour after Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr discussed the findings of his holistic capital review and called for new risk capital rules for banks with at least $100 billion of assets."Having strong capital requirements is important. It can help promote the economy, ensure a safe and sound banking system and that is in the interest of everyone," Hsu said. "You don't want to be pennywise and pound foolish with those requirements."The reforms outlined by Barr on Monday lined up closely with what regulators had been signaling for months. The bulk of changes would be tied to the final implementation of the Basel III international regulatory framework, along with incremental changes to the stress testing regime, slight adjustments to the capital surcharge applied to the very largest banks and expansion of long-term debt requirements.Barr also confirmed the industry's assumption that more onerous regulatory requirements would be applied to midsize and regional banks, those affected most acutely by this spring's banking crisis. He called for risk capital charges and long-term debt requirements to be applied to all banks with $100 billion of assets or more, instead of the current minimum of $700 billion. The Fed estimates that the changes would result in an average increase of capital 2% across all impacted banks, with the majority of that coming from the largest banks in the country.
Bank groups urge Fed to take its time with upcoming capital proposal - Industry groups are urging the Federal Reserve Board of Governors to take its time consideringpotential changes to capital standards for large banks.In a joint letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the American Bankers Association, Bank Policy Institute, Financial Services Forum, Institute of International Bankers and Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association asked the central bank to allow members of the public to comment on the proposal for 120 days after it is released, rather than a more typical 90- or 60-day window."This rule will have a profound effect on the U.S. banking system and U.S. capital markets," the group's wrote. "This will have a direct impact on the ability and cost of businesses and individuals to obtain credit and capital and manage business risks. It merits careful consideration."
Fed bid to hike bank capital slammed by ex-supervisory chief Quarles - Former Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Randal Quarles criticized his successor's plan to significantly increase capital requirements for big banks, saying it would needlessly hurt the economy."It's a mistake," Quarles, who now chairs the Cynosure Group, told a roundtable sponsored by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association trade group on Wednesday. "It will restrict the ability of the financial system to provide support for the real economy."Michael Barr, who took over as vice chair for supervision in July 2022, proposed this week a significant increase in big banks' capital standards to strengthen the ability of those institutions to withstand shocks on their own and not require government bailouts. The plan, which Barr began working on shortly after he joined the Fed, was unveiled in the wake of the failure of several regional banks earlier this year.Quarles argued that Barr appeared to be seeking to create a banking system in which no bank can fail. "That will almost inevitably be an inefficient system," he said.Instead, what's needed is a banking system where banks can fail but do so without triggering financial instability, according to Quarles.He agreed with proposed increases in banks' capital to take account of trading and operational risks. But he contended that other capital requirements should be recalibrated so that the overall level of the banks' cushion against losses is left roughly unchanged.Quarles was appointed to the vice chair post by former President Donald Trump, a Republican. Barr was nominated to succeed him by Democratic President Joe Biden.Quarles has faced criticism for leading the Fed's effort to ease some regulations for midsize lenders following 2018 legislation, which some Democrats have blamed for fueling the March banking turmoil. A Fed report on the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, led by Barr, blamed it in part on the Fed's approach to bank supervision under Quarles and called for an extensive reexamination of requirements for U.S. financial firms.
JPMorgan warns capital rules could take economic toll - JPMorgan Chase executives are warning that regulators' plan to strengthen capital requirements for large banks will make loans more expensive for borrowers and drive more consumers to do business with nonbank lenders, creating potentially adverse outcomes for the broader economy.The largest U.S. bank by assets told analysts Friday that the $3.9 trillion-asset company may need to hike interest rates on loans and pull back from offering certain products and services, depending on how much capital banks will be required to carry under forthcoming new rules.The capital increases proposed by regulators are "excessive" and will put pressure on JPMorgan to "increase price" where it can, Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Barnum said during the company's quarterly earnings call. "That is generally a bad thing for the real economy, and how all that plays out in detail across different products and services remains to be seen," he said.And higher capital requirements for banks open opportunities for nontraditional lenders that don't have to abide by similar capital rules, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon pointed out on the call."This is great news for hedge funds, private equity, private credit, Apollo, Blackstone," said Dimon, referring to two of the world's largest asset managers. "They're dancing in the streets."JPMorgan's caution comes just four days after Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr called for new risk capital rules, primarily for banks with at least $100 billion of assets — a threshold that would have included the three regional banks that failed this past spring.In the months since the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic Bank, which JPMorgan acquired on May 1, the push for stronger capital requirements for regional banks in particular has risen to the forefront as one regulatory response to those bank failures.Barr said the changes could result in a 2% overall average increase in capital for banks, which would have several years to build up the required amount of equity to meet the new rules.He also said stronger requirements are meant to align the United States with the Basel III endgame guidelines, which will bring more standardized capital rules to big banks. But banking groups and some lawmakers are worried that higher capital requirements will decrease banks' willingness to make loans to individuals and businesses, which could harm the economy.
Hedge fund treasury trade that blew up attracts BOE concern -- A leveraged trade in US Treasury futures that has regained popularity with hedge funds poses a risk to global financial stability, according to the Bank of England. Known as the basis trade, the strategy typically involves exploiting small price differences between cash bonds and futures, and is attracting scrutiny from US regulators. On Wednesday, the BOE added its voice, saying the risks associated with these trades have mostly not been tackled by regulators. The trade is particularly risky because returns are bolstered by borrowing money in the repo market. That tends to work well in a low volatility environment but can backfire if the market moves fast, and can even disrupt the smooth functioning of the financial system. At the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, as fund rushed to unwind their basis trades, liquidity dried up in Treasuries and other money markets. Such risks "remain largely unaddressed and could resurface rapidly," the BOE said. "In particular, the sharp transition to higher interest rates and currently high volatility increases the likelihood that market-based finance vulnerabilities crystallize and pose risks to financial stability."The warning comes amid increased scrutiny of threats to financial stability posed by non-banks. That follows a historic rout in the UK bond market in September related to a leveraged strategy used by pension funds and the "dash-for-cash" in March 2020. The BOE released details last month on its expanded stress tests that now include hedge funds and pension firms. Short positions in Treasury futures by leveraged investors have increased in recent months, the central bank said in its Financial Stability Report Wednesday. Market intelligence suggests these bets are "relative to bonds or swaps" and if prices were to move sharply, deleveraging the positions could further amplify stress, it said.
Regulators are aligned on capital reforms. Congress is a different story. - Federal regulators have lined up behind stronger capital requirements for large banks, but questions remain about how much political support they can generate in Washington — and how much they will need for their efforts to last.Unlike the last time bank capital standards were increased after the subprime mortgage crisis, this latest push lacks clear champions in Congress. Instead, Republicans and some moderate Democrats have expressed skepticism about Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr's "holistic" review of capital, which served as the basis for the policy changes he outlined Monday. The changes being considered — specifically updating risk-capital rules and resolution requirements on banks between $100 billion and $250 billion of assets — do not require an act of Congress to implement. Regulators need only put the policies through a rulemaking process, which is expected to kick off sometime in the coming weeks. But, some policy experts say moving forward without some kind of legislative backing could be a fraught exercise."The economic significance of these rules raises the bar for ensuring that they are correctly calibrated and that they have broad support," said Andrew Olmem, a partner and regulatory specialist at the law firm Mayer Brown. "Anytime an agency moves forward with a rule that could have a significant adverse impact without getting congressional support, it runs the risk of Congress or future administrations changing it. It's always in the public's best interest to take the time to get it right the first time."So far, the loudest voices in Congress speaking about capital reform are those urging caution.Late Friday, Reps. Andy Barr, R-Ky., and Bill Foster, D-Ill. — the chair and ranking member, respectively, on the House Financial Services Committee's subcommittee on financial institutions and monetary policy — sent a letter to the Fed's chief regulator reminding him that increased capital requirements can have negative impacts on the availability of credit for consumers."Your holistic review and any new requirements should consider those concerns to minimize negative impacts as we enter a phase of potential credit tightening," they wrote. "We must strike the right balance between safeguarding our financial system and ensuring banks of all sizes can support communities' access to credit."After Monday's speech, Rep. Barr accused Vice Chair Barr of failing to take that dynamic into consideration, adding that the reforms called for were "just the opposite of what the U.S. financial system needs as we face the growing likelihood of a recession and credit crunch."In his much-anticipated speech, Vice Chair Barr called for enhancing risk-capital rules as part of the final implementation of the Basel III international regulatory framework. He also called for modest changes to stress testing and expanding long-term debt requirements to a broader swath of banks. Critically, he called for lowering the threshold for these types of regulatory requirements from $700 billion to $100 billion.The changes were broadly expected and supported by other federal regulatory chiefs. Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu said there was "strong alignment" between the agencies on Monday. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Martin Gruenberg called for similar changes last month.But the proposals are not universally supported by officials in Washington. Fed Governor Michelle Bowman has repeatedly argued against changing capital standards, noting that banks had enough capital to overcome recent stresses. She also warned that overregulation coulddrive more activity out of the banking system and into less regulated nonbanks.
Warren takes aim at Biden administration, OCC's Hsu over bank mergers — Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., leaned into her prior criticism of acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu and the Biden administration for their comments around bank mergers during a Senate Banking Committee hearing Wednesday. Warren zeroed in on Hsu's approval of JPMorgan Chase's acquisition of First Republic Bank after the California-based institution failed earlier this year. Warren's disapproval of Hsu's handling of bank merger policy is a long-standing issue between the two policymakers, and one that makes it significantly more difficult for the Biden administration to nominate Hsu to lead the OCC on a non-acting basis. "I am extraordinarily concerned about what we have seen in recent months from banking regulators," Warren said. "When First Republic Bank collapsed in April, the bank was ultimately sold to the biggest bank in America, JP Morgan Chase. That sweetheart deal cost the FDIC fund $13 billion. Meanwhile overnight the country's biggest bank got $200 billion bigger. And what happened to the regulator? The acting Comptroller of the currency Michael Hsu rubber-stamped the deal in record time." Before the bank merger hearing, chaired by Warren, the Senate Banking Committee held an executive session in which it voted to send the nominations of three Federal Reserve nomineesto the full Senate for approval. Phillip Jefferson — who is nominated to serve as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors — received unanimous approval from the panel, while Lisa Cook and Adriana Kugler, both of whom are nominated as a member of the Board of Governors, passed the committee with 13-10 votes.Warren said that she would "soon" reintroduce her piece of legislation, the Bank Merger Review Modernization Act, which would require Consumer Financial Protection Bureau approval of bank mergers and set standards for banks' Community Reinvestment Act compliance in order to get merger approval, among other things. Unlike the first time Warren introduced that legislation, Warren could find some support for the idea of limiting large bank mergers from the Republican party. While the CFPB provisions might be an obstacle, the bigger picture idea of opposing megabanks purchasing smaller ones received support from Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, who introduced an amendment that would limit the ability of largest banks to purchase smaller failed ones as part of the executive compensation package sent through the Senate Banking Committee this month.
Regulators focus on climate risk, offer few rules: Report U.S. financial regulators have not yet issued rules on climate-related financial risks, though some agencies have taken more steps in that direction than others, according to an analysis of their activities by the sustainable finance advocate Ceres.The Treasury Department and the Federal Housing Finance Agency are among the regulators that have taken the most climate-related actions over the last year, Ceres says in a new report issued Tuesday. The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board took the fewest actions to incorporate climate issues into risk assessments, the report states.Ceres based its report on over 100 climate actions taken by 10 federal agencies including the Treasury, FHFA, PCAOB, Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission between July 2022 and last month.Agencies were graded in a scorecard across nine categories based on recommendations from the Financial Stability Oversight Council's Report on Climate-Related Financial Risk.The report comes as Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee kick off a series of public hearings aimed at clamping down on lenders' wider use of environmental, social and governance factors in business decisions and risk management. The first hearing was held Wednesday and focused on "protecting investor interests" by weighing legislation that would clamp down on the use of proxy votes by shareholder activists to advance ESG initiatives.During Wednesday's hearing, Rep. Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina who chairs the House Financial Services Committee, noted that regulators under the Biden administration have paid more attention to "nonmaterial" ESG issues "rather than focusing on sound financial regulation.""This misguided approach has led to increased costs and burdens for those participating in the U.S. public markets," McHenry said during the hearing.
Federal Reserve ends consent order regarding 2019 Capital One breach -- The Federal Reserve announced Tuesday that it had released Capital One from a 2020 orderforcing it to take certain step-up risk mitigation and governance measures following a 2019 data breach at the bank that affected 98 million individuals in the United States and approximately six million in Canada. The Federal Reserve, which does not provide comment when it terminates orders, declined to comment on the matter. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last year said when it took a similar action that the bank had achieved a level of safety and soundness that no longer required the extra oversight the office had imposed. The consent order between the Federal Reserve and Capital One required the bank to submit progress reports on its efforts to improve its risk management functions, which were not made public. The order also required the bank's holding company to serve as a "source of strength" (meaning source of managerial and financial support) for the bank as it took actions to comply. "We're pleased to fully resolve this regulatory matter from 2020," a spokesman for Capital One said. "We are committed to continuing to enhance our high standards of protection for our customers and staying ahead of the evolving threats faced by public and private institutions."
BofA ordered to pay $250 million over assorted consumer abuses -The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday hit Bank of America for charging multiple penalty fees to customers who didn't have enough money to cover a payment, as well as failing to deliver credit card rewards that it promised and opening a small number of accounts without customers' authorization. The $3.2 trillion-asset bank was ordered to repay roughly $100 million in restitution to affected customers. It is also on the hook for a total of $150 million in fines to the CFPB and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The Charlotte, North Carolina, bank targeted consumers with special offers of cash and points for signing up for a rewards credit card, but then withheld the cash rewards or bonus points from tens of thousands of customers, the CFPB said. In addition, Bank of America employees illegally applied for and opened a small number of credit card accounts without customers' knowledge or authorization dating back to at least 2012, long before the Wells Fargo fake-accounts scandal, according to the CFPB. "Bank of America wrongfully withheld credit card rewards, double-dipped on fees, and opened accounts without consent," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a press release. "These practices are illegal and undermine customer trust." Chopra added: "The CFPB will be putting an end to these practices across the banking system." Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, seized upon the consent orders to criticize large banks. "Bank of America has clearly broken the law in yet another case of Wall Street banks taking Americans' money to pad their already-massive profits," Brown said in a press release. "This is just the latest in a long line of illustrations of why we can't trust Wall Street to do the right thing. This kind of abuse is why we will continue to hold the big banks accountable, and it's why we need the CFPB — so consumers can keep their hard-earned money." The OCC said that "in response to supervisory concerns," BofA has waived, refunded or agreed to refund tens of millions of dollars to customers who were harmed by the bank's practice of charging multiple overdraft and nonsufficient funds fees on a single transaction.
BankThink: The more things change, the more big banks stay the same | American Banker - When Randal Quarles took the reins as vice chair for supervision at the Federal Reserve in 2017, there was a widespread expectation that the then-new sheriff in town was going to reduce capital requirements generally, and for the largest banks in particular. That isn't whatended up happening. Ultimately the Fed's most significant regulatory relief revolved aroundregional banks, while the largest banks — known in the biz as global systemically important institutions, or G-SIBs — got virtually no breaks.Six years later, the current new sheriff in town — Michael Barr, who holds Quarles' old job — on Monday unveiled his most detailed thinking so far of where he sees bank capital going next. Just as Quarles was widely expected to lower capital, the expectations for Barr's tenure centered around raising bank capital — and he did not seem to disappoint."These changes would increase capital requirements overall, but I want to emphasize that they would principally raise capital requirements for the largest, most complex banks," Barr said at an event at the Bipartisan Policy Center. "While this increase in requirements could lead to some changes in bank activities, the benefits of making the financial system more resilient to stresses that could otherwise impair growth are greater."But it's worth noting that when Barr says "the largest, most complex banks," he means something different from what that term has traditionally meant. The largest and most complex banks in the United States — such as JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America — are the G-SIBs, and there are exactly eight of them (nine if you stretch the definition to include so-called"Category 2" banks). But in his speech, Barr noted that the changes he's talking about would apply to banks with more than $100 billion of assets, and there are about 30 of those. As for the substance, Barr — not unlike Quarles — passed on the opportunity to radically rethink the basic building blocks of the bank regulatory capital stack. The G-SIB surcharge? Barr is "not recommending fundamental changes." The stress capital buffer, he said, is "sound." The risk-based capital framework "should be updated to better reflect credit, trading and operational risk," he said, and that could be a big deal for all banks concerned. But the thrust of what he has in mind would be largely accomplished by finalizing the Basel III: Endgame rules that would effectively end the "advanced approaches" modeling regime — an approach that banks themselves have been skeptical about for some time.
What the end of admission preferences means for banks, credit unions The Supreme Court's recent ruling on affirmative action isn't binding on the U.S. financial services industry, but its impacts on lenders could still be substantial. Two weeks after the June 29 decision, there is a growing consensus that diversity, equity and inclusion policies and programs at banks and credit unions — and across corporate America — are about to face a lot more scrutiny. Some programs could face legal challenges that are inspired by the Supreme Court's ruling that race cannot be used as a factor in college admissions. Banks and credit unions, and their corporate counsels, are likely now in the midst of trying to figure out the possible ramifications of the court's decision. Initiatives that could be under the microscope include internship programs for minority students and representation goals aimed at increasing workforce diversity, legal experts say. Lenders may be reviewing their existing programs and thinking about how to restructure them in ways that don't violate the court's ruling but still achieve the same goals, according to the legal experts. While the ruling does not directly affect private employers — the use of affirmative action in employment is rarely legal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Law of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin — the implications may still be far-reaching, said Esther Lander, an attorney at the Akin law firm. "I think the consequences of the opinion will be a lot more attention [paid] to diversity initiatives," Lander said. Some initiatives may "not pass Title VII scrutiny, and they're going to be illegal."
End of Easy Money: Financial Conditions Loosen Again for Junk-Rated Companies. But Some that Long Teetered Finally Go Over the Bankruptcy Cliff - by Wolf Richter • Financial conditions for junk-rated companies have tightened only a little since the Fed started tightening in early 2022, from the loosey-goosey levels in 2021, and they remain loose by historical standards, though the Fed has jacked up interest rates by five percentage points in order to tighten financial conditions, including for junk rated companies. These junk-rated companies generally don’t have enough cash flow left over, after paying their operating expenses, to cover all their interest payments; in other words, they have to borrow new money to pay interest on existing debts, which puts them into a precarious spot when financial conditions tighten.One measure of tightening financial conditions for junk-rated companies is the spread between junk-rated debt and debt that has no credit risk (Treasuries). For example, the average spread of BB-rated bonds, the upper end of junk (my cheat sheet for corporate credit rating scales by ratings agency) was just 2.66 percentage points as of Friday’s close (for an average yield of 7.13%).That spread of 2.66 percentage points has narrowed from 3.6 percentage points in March during the bank panic, and from 4.1 percentage points in July 2022!In March 2020, the BB-spread widened to over 8 percentage points. During the Financial Crisis, it widened to over 14 percentage points. So this spread of 2.66 percentage points is still narrow, still speaking of loose financial conditions, with investors still chasing yield and taking on risks with little extra compensation.Here is the long-term view. This is one of the astounding signs of our times: still too much liquidity chasing yield, taking on big risks for little extra compensation, despite the Fed’s tightening:Lots of these overindebted junk-rated companies will have to restructure their debts in bankruptcy court at the expense of stockholders, unsecured bondholders, even secured bondholders, and holders of their leveraged loans. That’s part of the cycle, that’s how it’s supposed to work, that’s how the corporate-debt burden on the economy gets relieved.Investors got paid to take those risks, and they took those risks to make money, and now those risks are coming home to roost.Bankruptcy filings by larger corporations in the first half of this year rose to the highest level since the same period in 2010, when they were coming down from the Financial Crisis. Another 54 of these companies filed for bankruptcy in June, same as in May, bringing the first-half total to 340, according to S&P Global’s bankruptcy report for companies that are publicly traded whose bankruptcy filings list at least $2 million in assets or liabilities, and for private companies with publicly traded debt (such as bonds) whose bankruptcy filings list at least $10 million in assets or liabilities.But they’re up by only 20% from the Good Times in 2019 and by only 9% from 2016, when the US Oil Bust sent a bunch of oil & gas companies scrambling for bankruptcy protection, though the Fed has now jacked up interest rates by 5 percentage points. And in 2021 and 2022, bankruptcy filings had plunged to abnormal lows as the economy was awash in Easy Money trying to find a place to go.During the pandemic, the Fed bent over backwards to bail out corporate America, including by buying corporate bonds and bond ETFs, including ETFs that focused on junk bonds. And it cut its policy rates to near 0%, and it bought trillions of dollars of Treasury securities and MBS over a few months, flooding the economy with what would ultimately be $4.6 trillion of insta-liquidity that went chasing after everything, and of course, now we have inflation.So the Fed is now doing the opposite: interest rates are over 5% and QT marches on. And you’d think this rapid tightening – the most rapid in 40 years – would have a more serious impact on financial conditions and on bankruptcy filings.
'Passionate' fight: SBA, IG clash over depth of PPP fraud An internal disagreement at the Small Business Administration has spilled into the public. Hannibal Ware, the agency's inspector general, said he and the agency's administrator, Isabella Casillas Guzman, have a "passionate disagreement" over the level of fraud that occurred in the pandemic-relief programs SBA managed.Ware and Guzman released conflicting reports last month, with Ware's Office of the Inspector General finding pandemic-related fraud likely exceeded $200 billion, while SBA itself put the number substantially lower — closer to $36 billion. SBA officials have characterized the OIG's $200 billion figure as an overestimate and misleading. SBA's report, released June 28 — a day after OIG released its findings — stated the agency conducted more than 3 million detailed, "human-led" reviews, which have helped whittle its fraud estimate to 744,000 loans totaling $36 billion. In a July 12 letter to House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams, George Holman, SBA's associate administrator for congressional and legislative affairs, expressed the agency's concern that the OIG report "contains serious flaws that significantly overestimate fraud and unintentionally mislead the public to believe that the work we did together had no significant impact in protecting against fraud."Both the SBA and OIG probes covered the Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs. Appearing before the committee on Thursday, Ware defended his team's work, calling SBA's estimate "totally false." According to Ware, the agency "does not have access to the data sets we do.""We're sitting in the middle of the fight and [$36 billion] is not a real number," Ware added.
CFPB eyes deferred interest as part of medical financing crackdown — Four days after announcing an inquiry into high-cost financial products that consumers use to pay for medical expenses, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held a hearing Tuesday on potential ways to crack down on practices the agency believes are problematic.Much of the hearing, which included comments from panelists and members of the public, focused on credit cards that charge deferred interest. That practice — which entails customers paying interest retroactively at the end of a 0% promotional period if the balance is not fully paid when that period expires — is a longtime target of consumer advocates.Chi Chi Wu, senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center, said that deferred interest can lead consumers to accrue massive levels of medical debt, and she argued that the practice should be banned.She said that deferred interest violates the original intent of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, which explicitly prohibits retroactive rate increases and double-cycle billing. When the Federal Reserve wrote the law's implementing regulations, it did so in an ambiguous enough way as to effectively allow deferred interest to persist, Wu said."What the Fed did was it allowed deferred interest, creating a regulatory loophole for it," she said. "So the CFPB could eliminate that loophole or restrict it significantly."
Republicans file amicus in CFPB constitutionality case -A bicameral group of 132 Republican members of Congress urged the Supreme Court to rule that the Consumer Federal Protection Bureau's funding structure is unconstitutional on Tuesday.The appeal was detailed in an amicus brief submitted on a case over whether the Bureau's funding from an executive agency, the Federal Reserve Board, is out of step with the Constitution. The Republican members of Congress argued that the court should side with a Fifth Circuit appeals court ruling from last year, in which the bureau's funding was found to violate the separations of power outlined in the Constitution because it does not have to be approved by Congress."The CFPB insists that its funding mechanisms are analogous to those used by agencies like the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the U.S. Postal Service. But that is wrong," wrote the lawmakers, led by House Financial Services Committee Chair Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., Rep. Andy Barr, R-Ky., Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mo., and Senate Banking Committee ranking member Tim Scott, R-S.C.The Supreme Court agreed to take CFPB vs. Community Financial Services Association of America among the cases it will hear this term after the CFPB asked in November that it review how the three Fifth Circuit judges — all of whom were appointed by former President Donald Trump — had ruled. The Second Circuit, by contrast, backed a lower court ruling in March that sided with the CFPB.If the Supreme Court sides with the Fifth Circuit, it could undermine the legitimacy of the CFPB's rulemaking and enforcement actions, potentially opening it to a flurry of litigation, experts have said. That outcome will hinge on how expansive the justices want to get in their ruling, however.
CPFB and 11 states sue boot camp operator over income-share agreements The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and 11 states are suing the operator of a career boot camp for allegedly tricking students into signing income-share agreements they had to repay even if they didn't land a high-paying job. Prehired, which filed for bankruptcy last year, promised graduates that they wouldn't need to repay their financial obligations until they landed high-paying jobs, the CFPB said in a lawsuit filed Thursday. But the firm's contracts had buried phrasing that required repayment no matter the students' job status, and the company sued those whose loans went into default, according to the consumer agency. "Prehired falsely pitched its purported training program as a risk-free investment, but instead often saddled its students with debt," CFPB Director Rohit Chopra said in a news release. The development centers on a relatively new product — income-share agreements — that consumer advocates say are akin to student loans and should be subject to far more protections. Income-share agreements help students to finance education and job-training programs. Students agree to repay them by turning over some chunk of their income once they get a job. The lawsuit, filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware, says Prehired offered a 12-week program that trained students for jobs as software sales development representatives. In 2019, Prehired's program cost $15,000, the lawsuit says, and the company prodded interested students who couldn't afford the tuition to finance the cost. More than 1,000 students entered into income-share agreements with Prehired — arrangements that the CFPB says should be considered debt since they purchase a service and require repayment. Companies that offer consumer loans are required to make several disclosures, and they are subject to rules under the Truth in Lending Act. Prehired did not respond to a request for comment
Third Wave of Hotel CRE Defaults Has Started, Triggered by CMBS Maturities and Variable-Rate Mortgages Wolf Richter - The financialization of everything has let to a convoluted setup for hotels and their beaten-up investors at all levels. It goes something like this: The hotel properties are held by a publicly traded hotel REIT that leveraged them up with variable-rate interest-only mortgages during the era of ultra-low interest rates, that were then securitized into commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and, backed by overinflated property valuations, sold to institutional investors, such as pension funds and bond funds. The hotels themselves are operated by other companies, usually partnering in some way with a hotel brand, such as Marriott. When the Fed hiked its policy rates, the variable rates of those mortgages – pegged to short-term interest rates, such as Libor – jumped, and so mortgage payments roughly doubled in a year, while hotel property valuations plunged back to earth. So the hotel REITs have now started to walk away from the properties. They take a total loss on their equity. The CMBS holders take the remaining losses when they sell the properties, with the proceeds not anywhere near enough to cover the loan balance. The companies that operate the hotels continue to do so, and guests might not know the difference. For CMBS holders, this has been a nasty deal for years. During the Great Recession, defaults topped out at 19%, according to Trepp, which tracks and analyzes CMBS. That was the first wave. During the early months of the pandemic, the default rate topped out at 24%; but in that second wave, as hotels reopened, many defaults were cured.So now we have the beginning of a third wave of defaults in 15 years, this one driven by soaring interest rates, and property owners walking away instead of trying to work out a deal, as they’d often done during the pandemic.In June, the default rate of lodging CMBS jumped to 5.3% – worse even than the default rate of office mortgages. The latest was Ashford Hospitality Trust, a hotel REIT headquartered in Dallas. It said on Friday that it intends to walk away from 19 hotel properties in cities across the US. The mortgages of the 19 hotels are in three mortgage pools that had an initial maturity date in June but could be extended. To extend the loans, the REIT would have to pay down the balance by $255 million. Those three mortgage pools are part of six mortgage pools, with a combined balance of $982 million, that matured in June. The company decided to make the down-payments totaling $129 million on the other three pools to extend loans for the 15 hotels in those pools. The interest rate of the three mortgage pools that it intends to walk away from has jumped to 8.8%, and the 19 hotels “were not covering debt service,” the company said. By walking away, the company will save the $255 million down-payment plus it will save $80 million in capital expenditures at these hotels through 2025, it said. It tried to sell two of these mortgage pools but did not receive any bids above the loan balances. “This is a prudent economic decision that reflects a comprehensive capital management process by the Company, which explored and assessed multiple options for these assets including refinancing, extensions, and potential asset sales,” it said, thereby handing the losses to the CMBS holders.
Farmers to end home, auto coverage in Florida, pull back in California over natural disaster costs - Farmers Insurance will end its home, auto and umbrella coverage in Florida and curtail coverage offerings in California due to ongoing risks from environmental disaster, the insurer announced Tuesday.In a statement shared with The Hill, Farmers confirmed it will discontinue those forms of coverage in the Sunshine State, saying “this business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure.” The insurer will also curtail new homeowners’ insurance policies in California, due to “record-breaking inflation, severe weather events, and reconstruction costs,” Farmers said.A spokesperson for Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) told The Hill that it is reviewing the notice, but added that it was marked as trade secret, restricting how much the office can discuss it. In the meantime, the spokesperson pointed to a state law that requires all insurers to give the OIR 90 days’ notice before discontinuing lines of insurance in Florida. Customers are entitled to 120 days’ notice. Florida is at particular risk due to the hurricanes and tropical storms that have historically battered its coasts, while California has its own unique risks in the form of its wildfire season. The announcement comes the month after Farmers announced it would not write new property policies in Florida due to rising catastrophe costs, while State Farm, California’s largest homeowners insurer, announced in May that it would halt new policies in the state due to catastrophe exposure. AIG, meanwhile, announced earlier it would end new policies for homeowners along Florida’s coastline. In its announcement Tuesday, Florida projected that about 30 percent of overall policyholders in the state would be affected. Florida, in addition to its exposure to environmental risk, also has particularly high insurance rates due to a combination of fraud and lawsuits. A state law enacted at the beginning of this year creates a new property insurance backstop in the state, but it’s unclear yet how much of the problem this will offset.
Banks are bailing on small mortgages, driving buyers to risky alternatives -American banks are losing interest, consumer advocates say, in writing mortgages for inexpensive homes. Their exodus from the small-mortgage market leaves a patchwork of risky, poorly regulated home-loan alternatives that can propel the most vulnerable buyers into debt or homelessness. Twenty years ago, the median home cost less than $200,000, and banks routinely approved mortgages for half that amount. Today, the median home costs $437,000, and buyers struggle to find banks that will write mortgages for less than $150,000. Instead, many buyers turn to alternative financing, a universe of personal property loans, lease-purchase agreements, land contracts and seller-financed mortgages. Typically, those transactions are both riskier and costlier than a mortgage, and they fall outside the regulatory cocoon that protects homebuyers from fraud and trickery. In the worst cases, borrowers can lose their home and their solvency. “People think that they are on the path to owning their own home, when in fact they are on a path to financial disaster, forfeiting all of the money that they have paid in, as well as the place that they thought was their home,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said. “Too often, these contracts are designed to fail.” Smith spoke Tuesday at a Senate hearing with the dramatic title, Exploiting the American Dream: How Abusive Land Contracts Prey on Vulnerable Homebuyers. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) termed the industry’s bad actors “a bunch of folks who should have a special place in Hell.” Buyers stray outside the protective red tape of the mortgage industry for many reasons. They may have low credit scores, or lack the funds for a down payment, or wish to avoid the deep document dive that attends a mortgage application. The purchaser may lack financial literacy. The lender may be a family friend. “My clients tend to have trusted the seller, the people who approached them with a situation that maybe sounded too good to be true,” Elizabeth Goodell, supervising attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid, said at the Senate hearing. But consumer advocates and researchers also point the finger at banks. Mortgage lenders are growing increasingly reluctant to approve loans in the $100,000 range, because those transactions no longer turn much profit.
Canada proposes tougher bank capital rules on extended mortgages -Canada's banking regulator is proposing to make it more costly for lenders to accommodate mortgage borrowers who stretch out their loans in an effort to limit housing-market risks in the financial system. Lenders would have to hold more capital against mortgages that are in "negative amortization" — that is, in which the monthly payments are no longer enough to cover the interest owed, and so the balance is getting bigger. The new rules would apply to mortgages where the loan amount is 65% or more of the value of the property, according to a proposal released Tuesday by the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions. The move is the latest attempt by regulators to contain fallout from the Bank of Canada's interest rate hikes over the last year. Canada's pool of variable rate mortgages, which track the central bank's overnight rate, have come in for particular scrutiny. The products became very popular when rates were at record lows during the early part of the Covid pandemic. But when the central bank raised rates sharply last year, some borrowers took the option of not paying the full amount of interest they owe each month. This unpaid interest is tacked onto the principal instead, a process called negative amortization because as the loan grows, the lender extends the total time for it to be repaid. The regulator's proposal for higher capital requirements would provide one more curb on how the banks use this tool, and "encourage banks to lessen the number of mortgages that would otherwise go into negative amortization," OSFI said in its proposal. It will be open for comment until Sept. 1.
MBA: Mortgage Applications Increased in Weekly Survey From the MBA: Mortgage Applications Increase in Latest MBA Weekly Survey: Mortgage applications increased 0.9 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending July 7, 2023. This week’s results include an adjustment for the observance of Independence Day. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 0.9 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the Index decreased 19 percent compared with the previous week. The Refinance Index decreased 1 percent from the previous week and was 39 percent lower than the same week one year ago. The seasonally adjusted Purchase Index increased 2 percent from one week earlier. The unadjusted Purchase Index decreased 19 percent compared with the previous week and was 26 percent lower than the same week one year ago.“Incoming economic data continue to send mixed signals about the economy, with the overall impact leaving Treasury yields higher last week as markets expect that the Federal Reserve will need to hold rates higher for longer to slow inflation. All mortgage rates in our survey followed suit, with the 30-year fixed rate increasing to 7.07 percent, the highest level since November 2022,” . “The jumbo rate also increased to 7.04 percent, a record high for the jumbo series, which dates back to 2011.” “Purchase applications increased, but remained at a very low level and are 26 percent lower than the same week last year. The rise in purchase activity was driven by increases in both FHA and VA purchase applications. The refinance index dropped to its lowest level since early June, as demand for rate/term and cash-out refinances remains extremely low with mortgage rates over 7 percent.”... The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with conforming loan balances ($726,200 or less) increased to 7.07 percent from 6.85 percent, with points increasing to 0.74 from 0.65 (including the origination fee) for 80 percent loan-to-value ratio (LTV) loans. The effective rate increased from last week.The first graph shows the MBA mortgage purchase index.According to the MBA, purchase activity is down 26% year-over-year unadjusted.
CoreLogic: US Annual Home Price Growth Drops to the Lowest Rate in 11 Years in May The CoreLogic HPI is a three-month weighted average and is not seasonally adjusted (NSA). From CoreLogic: CoreLogic: US Annual Home Price Growth Drops to the Lowest Rate in 11 Years in May CoreLogic® ... today released the CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI™) and HPI Forecast™ for May 2023. Annual U.S. single-family home price growth slowed for the 12th straight month in May, falling to 1.4% increase year over year. The last time CoreLogic’s Home Price index saw annual growth fall to less than 2% was in early 2012, but U.S. appreciation still remained positive for the 136th straight month in May.Following recent trends, a significant number of Western states saw prices decline in May from the same time in 2022, reflecting out-migration from less-urban locations where people moved during the height of the pandemic and the significant loss of affordability due to those resulting home price surges. Northeastern states and Southeastern metro areas continue to see larger home price gains compared with other areas of the country, due to both workers slowly moving back to job centers in some areas of the country and settling in relatively affordable places in others.“After peaking in the spring of 2022, annual home price deceleration continued in May,” said Selma Hepp, chief economist at CoreLogic. “Despite slowing year-over-year price growth, the recent momentum in monthly price gains continues in the face of recent mortgage rates increases.” U.S. home prices (including distressed sales) increased by 1.4% year over year in May 2023 compared with May 2022. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 0.9% compared with April 2023. This index was up 2.0% YoY in April.
Housing July 10th Weekly Update: Inventory Decreased 0.2% Week-over-week; Down 4.6% Year-over-year - Altos reports that active single-family inventory was down 0.2% week-over-week.This inventory graph is courtesy of Altos Research. As of July 7th, inventory was at 465 thousand (7-day average), compared to 466 thousand the prior week. Year-to-date, inventory is down 5.3%. And inventory is up 14.7% from the seasonal bottom 12 weeks ago.The second graph shows the seasonal pattern for active single-family inventory since 2015.The red line is for 2023. The black line is for 2019. Note that inventory is up from the record low for the same week in 2021, but below last year and still well below normal levels.Inventory was down 4.6% compared to the same week in 2022 (last week it was down 1.3%), and down 51.0% compared to the same week in 2019 (last week down 51.9%). It appears likely same week inventory will be below 2022 levels for the remainder of the year, but above 2021 levels - and possibly above 2020 levels late in the year.Mike Simonsen discusses this data regularly on Youtube.
Realtor.com Reports Weekly Active Inventory Down 2% YoY; New Listings Down 21% YoY --Realtor.com has monthly and weekly data on the existing home market. Here is their weekly report from analyst Hannah Jones: Weekly Housing Trends View — Data Week Ending July 8, 2023
• Active inventory declined, with for-sale homes lagging behind year ago levels by 5%. A year into weekly new listing declines, active inventory levels have started to mirror the slow down in listing activity. More than 80% of home-shoppers looking to buy and sell a home feel locked in by their current mortgage rate. As a result, buyers are seeing fewer available homes on the market. We expect to see this trend continue as mortgage rates are expected to remain elevated for the time being.
• New listings–a measure of sellers putting homes up for sale–were down again this week, by 27% from one year ago. The number of newly listed homes has been lower than the same time the previous year for the past 53 weeks. This week’s data shows a wider gap than last week, and is bigger than what has been typical year-to-date. The job market’s ongoing resilience has enabled buyers to remain active in today’s market, despite the high cost of homeownership. However, high mortgage rates have convinced many would-be sellers to hold off on listing their home for sale. Buyer demand and lack of existing home inventory has resulted in renewed new home sales energy.
Here is a graph of the year-over-year change in inventory according to realtor.com. Inventory was down 5.0% year-over-year - this was the third consecutive YoY decrease following 58 consecutive weeks with a YoY increase in inventory. Inventory is still up from the record lows in the 2nd half of 2021 and early 2022, and it is unlikely we will see new record lows this year.
A record share of Americans is living alone -Nearly 30 percent of American households comprise a single person, a record high. Scholars say living alone is not a trend so much as a transformation: Across much of the world, large numbers of people are living alone for the first time in recorded history. “It’s just a stunning social change,” said Eric Klinenberg, a sociologist at New York University and author of the book “Going Solo.” “I came to see it as the biggest demographic change in the last century that we failed to recognize and take seriously.” Homo sapiens is a social animal. Historians tapped ancient census rolls to show that our species has lived in groups for as long as such records have existed, stretching back at least to 1600. The U.S. Census shows that “solitaries” made up 8 percent of all households in 1940. The share of solo households doubled to 18 percent in 1970 and more than tripled, to an estimated 29 percent, by 2022. The solo-living movement intersects with several other societal trends. Americans are marrying later, if at all. The nation is aging. The national birthrate is falling. People are living longer — or they were, until the pandemic arrived. More than anything, perhaps, the rise of single-person households is about women entering the workforce and achieving economic self-sufficiency. The share of adult women participating in the labor force reached 50 percent around 1980. Historically speaking, “you don’t really see people living alone until women have control of their own lives and their own bodies,” Klinenberg said.
Leading Index for Commercial Real Estate Decreased in June -- From Dodge Data Analytics: Decline in Institutional Planning Drops Dodge Momentum Index Down 3% in June The Dodge Momentum Index (DMI), issued by Dodge Construction Network, declined 2.5% in June to 197.3 (2000=100) from the revised May reading of 202.4. Over the month, the commercial component of the DMI rose 3.1%, while the institutional component sunk 10.5%. “A deceleration in institutional planning caused the Momentum Index to decrease in June,” said Sarah Martin, associate director of forecasting for Dodge Construction Network. “Project activity in this segment pulled back from the robust highs of the last three months but continued to dwarf year-ago levels. In contrast, growth in the commercial segment may be fleeting, as the continued elevation in interest rates and increasingly tight lending standards weigh down the sector in the latter half of the year.”Commercial planning in June remained afloat alongside an uptick in data center and hotel planning projects. Institutional planning, on the other hand, was driven lower by a decrease in education and healthcare activity. Year over year, the DMI remains 25% higher than in June 2022. The commercial and institutional components were up 17% and 39% respectively....The DMI is a monthly measure of the initial report for nonresidential building projects in planning, shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year.This graph shows the Dodge Momentum Index since 2002. The index was at 197.3 in June, down from 202.4 the previous month.According to Dodge, this index leads "construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year". This index suggests some slowdown towards the end of 2023 or in 2024. Commercial construction is a lagging economic indicator.
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Up 4.1% Year-over-year -From STR: STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 1 July - U.S. hotel performance fell from the previous week, but year-over-year comparisons improved, according to STR‘s latest data through 1 July.25 June through 1 July 2023 (percentage change from comparable week in 2022):
• Occupancy: 69.9% (+4.1%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$156.27 (+1.5%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$109.18 (+5.7%)
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average. The red line is for 2023, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2022. Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is at the median rate for the period 2000 through 2022 (Blue)The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will increase during the summer travel season.
Hotels: Occupancy Rate Down 2.3% Year-over-year From STR: STR: U.S. hotel results for week ending 8 July: Due to constricted business travel during the Fourth of July, U.S. hotel performance fell from the previous week and showed weaker year-over-year comparisons, according to STR‘s latest data through 8 July.
2-8 July 2023 (percentage change from comparable week in 2022):
• Occupancy: 61.8% (-2.3%)
• Average daily rate (ADR): US$155.81 (+1.2%)
• Revenue per available room (RevPAR): US$96.36 (-1.2%)
The following graph shows the seasonal pattern for the hotel occupancy rate using the four-week average. The red line is for 2023, black is 2020, blue is the median, and dashed light blue is for 2022. Dashed purple is for 2018, the record year for hotel occupancy. The 4-week average of the occupancy rate is at the median rate for the period 2000 through 2022 (Blue).The 4-week average of the occupancy rate will increase during the summer travel season.
BLS: CPI increased 0.2% in May; Core CPI increased 0.2% -From the BLS:The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) rose 0.2 percent in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, after increasing 0.1 percent in May, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Over the last 12 months, the all items index increased 3.0 percent before seasonal adjustment.The index for shelter was the largest contributor to the monthly all items increase, accounting for over 70 percent of the increase, with the index for motor vehicle insurance also contributing. The food index increased 0.1 percent in June after increasing 0.2 percent the previous month. The index for food at home was unchanged over the month while the index for food away from home rose 0.4 percent in June. The energy index rose 0.6 percent in June as the major energy component indexes were mixed.The index for all items less food and energy rose 0.2 percent in June, the smallest 1-month increase in that index since August 2021. Indexes which increased in June include shelter, motor vehicle insurance, apparel, recreation, and personal care. The indexes for airline fares, communication, used cars and trucks, and household furnishings and operations were among those that decreased over the month.The all items index increased 3.0 percent for the 12 months ending June; this was the smallest 12-month increase since the period ending March 2021. The all items less food and energy index rose 4.8 percent over the last 12 months. The energy index decreased 16.7 percent for the 12 months ending June, and the food index increased 5.7 percent over the last year. CPI was as expectations and core CPI was lower than expected. I'll post a graph later today after the Cleveland Fed releases the median and trimmed-mean CPI.
Core Services CPI Cools to Still Red-Hot 6.2%, Core CPI to 4.8%. Plunge in Energy Prices Pulls Down Overall CPI to 3.0%. Food Prices Stabilize at Very High Levels by Wolf Richter - The “Core” Consumer Price Index rose by a still hot 4.8% in June compared to a year ago, but that was down from an increase of 5.3% in May, according to data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics today. June was the smallest increase since October 2021. As a measure of underlying inflation, core CPI excludes the prices of food and energy products that tend to move wildly in either direction. Overall CPI rose by 3.0% in June year-over-year, the lowest since March 2021. The chart shows core CPI (red) and overall CPI (green). The year-over-year plunge in energy prices (-16.7%!) pushed the overall CPI increases below those of core CPI. When energy prices stop plunging on a year-over-year basis, overall CPI will once again be above core CPI. But it’s getting tougher in the second half because, based on what we know already, no forecasting required:
- Energy prices can’t keep plunging forever; in fact, they ticked up again on a monthly basis.
- The infamous “base effect” will fade next month for the rest of the year. The “base” for today’s year-over-year calculation is the surge of the index through June 2022. But in the second half last year, the index slowed sharply, which will be the lower base going forward, providing for bigger year-over-year increases.
- The notorious “health insurance adjustment” pushed down CPI for health insurance to -24.9% year-over-year, which pushed down the entire medical care CPI to 0%. And this is a biggie. This adjustment ends in September and might swing the other way (more in a moment).
On a month-to-month basis, core CPI increased by 0.16% in June, compared to 0.44% in May, after two monthly increases (red line in the chart below). The three-month moving average of core CPI rose by 0.33% (blue line), after four monthly increases above 0.4%. This was just below the December value, which had given everyone a lot of hope back then, but was then followed by a series of increases. Precisely what we’ve seen before: a large change in one month, only to be reversed a month or two later. Now waiting for the bounce. Energy prices plunged year-over-year, but rose on a monthly basis, on price jumps in gasoline and electricity services. Here is the CPI for gasoline as index value, not percent-change. It accounts for about half of the total energy CPI. It has been rising for six months:The index for core services (without energy services) increased by 0.25% in June from May, compared to an increase of 0.40% in the prior month (red line).This is where the massive “health insurance adjustment” weighs heavily. It has understated medical care services since October 2022, but it will end in September 2023. In June, the CPI for health insurance plunged 24.9% year-over-year.Other items that pushed down core services CPI were airline fares (-18.9% YoY, -8.1% MoM); car and truck rental (-12.4% YoY, -1.4% MoM); video and audio services and cable (-4.3% YoY, -0.5% MoM); and lodging including hotels and motels (-2.3% MoM, but +5.0% YoY).Year-over-year, the core services CPI jumped by a still red-hot 6.2%, compared to 6.6% in May. February had marked a 40-year record of 7.3%.
Cleveland Fed: Median CPI increased 0.1% and Trimmed-mean CPI increased 0.1% in June --The Cleveland Fed released the median CPI and the trimmed-mean CPI.According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, the median Consumer Price Index rose 0.1% in June. The 16% trimmed-mean Consumer Price Index also increased 0.1% in June. "The median CPI and 16% trimmed-mean CPI are measures of core inflation calculated by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland based on data released in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ (BLS) monthly CPI report".This graph shows the year-over-year change for these four key measures of inflation. On a year-over-year basis, the median CPI rose 6.4%, the trimmed-mean CPI rose 5.5%, and the CPI less food and energy rose 5.0%. Core PCE is for May and increased 4.6% year-over-year.Note: The Cleveland Fed released the median CPI details. "Motor Vehicle Insurance" increased at a 21% annualized rate in June.
Early Look at 2024 Cost-Of-Living Adjustments and Maximum Contribution Base --The BLS reported this morning:The Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) increased 2.3 percent over the last 12 months to an index level of 299.394 (1982-84=100). For the month, the index increased 0.3 percent prior to seasonal adjustment.CPI-W is the index that is used to calculate the Cost-Of-Living Adjustments (COLA). The calculation dates have changed over time (see Cost-of-Living Adjustments), but the current calculation uses the average CPI-W for the three months in Q3 (July, August, September) and compares to the average for the highest previous average of Q3 months. Note: this is not the headline CPI-U and is not seasonally adjusted (NSA). In 2022, the Q3 average of CPI-W was 291.901. The 2022 Q3 average was the highest Q3 average, so we only have to compare Q3 this year to last year.This graph shows CPI-W since January 2000. The red lines are the Q3 average of CPI-W for each year. Note: The year labeled is for the calculation, and the adjustment is effective for December of that year (received by beneficiaries in January of the following year). CPI-W was up 2.3% year-over-year in June, and although this is early - we need the data for July, August and September - my very early guess is COLA will probably be close to 3% this year, the smallest increase since 1.3% in 2021. Note that CPI-W was slightly negative month-over-month in July and August of 2022, so it is likely there will be a larger year-over-year increase in CPI-W over the next few months than in June, hence my 3% early guess.The contribution base will be adjusted using the National Average Wage Index. This is based on a one-year lag. The National Average Wage Index is not available for 2022 yet, wages increased solidly in 2022. If wages increased 5% in 2022, then the contribution base next year will increase to around $168,200 in 2024, from the current $160,200.Remember - this is an early look. What matters is average CPI-W, NSA, for all three months in Q3 (July, August and September).
Wholesale Used Car Prices Decreased 4.2% in June; Down 10.3% Year-over-year -From Manheim Consulting today: Wholesale Used-Vehicle Prices See Large Decline in June - Wholesale used-vehicle prices (on a mix, mileage, and seasonally adjusted basis) decreased 4.2% in June from May. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (MUVVI) declined to 215.1, down 10.3% from a year ago.“The 4.2% drop is among the largest declines in MUVVI history and the largest decline since the start of the pandemic in April 2020 when the index plunged 11.4%,” said Chris Frey, senior manager of Economic and Industry Insights for Cox Automotive. “The year-over-year decline was also large, another 2.7% drop from May’s annualized 7.6% decline, but as mentioned last month, auction prices were lower in the fall last year, and we expect these increasing year-over-year moves to shrink in the months ahead as the market normalizes. This index from Manheim Consulting is based on all completed sales transactions at Manheim’s U.S. auctions. The Manheim index suggests used car prices decreased in June (seasonally adjusted) and were down 10.3% year-over-year (YoY).
Weekly Initial Unemployment Claims Decrease to 237,000 - The DOL reported:In the week ending July 8, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 237,000, a decrease of 12,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 1,000 from 248,000 to 249,000. The 4-week moving average was 246,750, a decrease of 6,750 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 250 from 253,250 to 253,500.The following graph shows the 4-week moving average of weekly claims since 1971.The dashed line on the graph is the current 4-week average. The four-week average of weekly unemployment claims decreased to 246,750.The previous week was revised up.Weekly claims were below the consensus forecast.
Companies Now Hiring Faster than Laying Off: A Favorite Recession Indicator Has Now Backtracked for 3 Months- by Wolf Richter - There is an interesting dynamic happening that we have seen on the ground, and that is now solidly showing up in unemployment insurance: some companies are laying off people in the US, but the same companies and other companies are hiring these people, and even big companies with huge layoff announcements are still hiring people; and the whole process of these layoff announcements and layoffs has scared employees, and it cut down workers quitting their jobs, and workers who’d refused to go back to the office are now trudging back to the office a few days a week, and demands for higher salaries have softened. For the last three months, the number of people who “continue” claiming unemployment insurance benefits has been dropping, after seven months of increases due to the layoffs. Starting in early 2023, we saw an increase in “initial” unemployment insurance claims, up from historic lows, but still near historic lows. And for a while, the number of people who continued to collect unemployment insurance inched up from historic lows, in a sign that it took them longer to find jobs. These were early indicators of the labor market weakening. But that ended in April. Since early April, surprisingly, the number of people on continued unemployment insurance has dropped. So here we go, first the “initial claims,” then the “continued claims” — it’s the continued claims where we see this phenomenon. Initial claims for unemployment insurance. We won’t get too excited about the weekly ups and downs; we’ll look at the trends. But here we go. The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance that people filed in the latest reporting week with state unemployment offices fell by 12,000 to 237,000 initial claims, seasonally adjusted, the Labor Department reported today. The chart of the 4-week moving average irons out those weekly ups and downs. And we can see the mild uptrend that started early this year, from near historic lows: For the long view in the historic context, initial claims for unemployment insurance remain at the low end of the past 50 years: “Continued Claims” backtrack. But the number of people who are still claiming unemployment insurance at least one week after the initial application – people who haven’t found a job yet – has slowly fallen from this year’s high in early April of 1.86 million to 1.73 million in the latest week. This was unexpected. It means that people find jobs more quickly than earlier this year and are rehired more quickly and come off the unemployment-benefit rolls faster. It means that companies are now hiring people faster than they’re laying off people. Recessions from the Great Recession back through the Double-Dip recession in the early 1980s began when continued claims for unemployment insurance spiked through about the 2.5-million mark. This is one of our recession indicators, but it has been backtracking over the past three months. The gray insert shows the details over the past 12 months: In a historic context, all that has really happened is that the labor market, as depicted by people continuing to claim unemployment benefits, weakened a little in the months leading up to April, to something that was still historically tight, but since then, it has re-tightened a little: So what we’re seeing in these claims for unemployment insurance benefits is that the labor market, after loosening just a little earlier this year, is now backtracking a little, rather than loosening further, amid still very strong demand for labor. And we’re also seeing in the data of slower wage increases and dropping voluntary “quits” that workers have been intimidated by the avalanche of global layoff announcements starting a year ago that the media enthusiastically turned into clicks, and that caused workers to surrender some of the extraordinary power they’d gained in the prior two years.
Test scores show American students slipping further behind despite recovery efforts --Students across the U.S. fell further behind academically last school year despite extensive efforts to help them recover from pandemic learning setbacks, according to an analysis of test scores released Tuesday.The research by NWEA, a nonprofit group that administers standardized tests, lands as the 2024 deadline approaches quickly for schools to spend the last of the $190 billion in federal pandemic relief money.There are ways schools can take better advantage of their limited resources and time to boost learning, said Chase Nordengren, the group’s lead researcher for instructional strategies. He said schools could group students based on their needs and provide targeted instruction, for example, adjusting groups as individuals progress.“We’ve been trying to send the message that this is a multiyear, if not decades-long recovery period and is going to require some fundamental rethinking of the ways that not only we educate students but we think about how students are grouped and how we think about their learning,” he said.The study used data from about 6.5 million students who took the MAP Growth assessment in reading and math since the onset of the pandemic. Those numbers were compared with data on academic growth from three years before the pandemic.The results this year — the third full school year since the COVID-19 pandemic hit — are in some ways worse than last year, when the NWEA analysis showed students largely made academic gains that paralleled their growth pre-pandemic, said Karyn Lewis, director of the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA, and the study’s co-author.“And because kids are making gains at rates below pre-COVID trends, that means we’re not shrinking those achievement gaps. We’re actually widening them,” Lewis said.With historic sums of money sent by the federal government, schools have expanded tutoring, summer learning programs and other recovery efforts.But the analysis found that the average student still would need the equivalent of 4.1 additional months of schooling to catch up in reading and 4.5 months for math. Black and Hispanic students, meanwhile, would need even more time to catch up — about a month or more. And “that really only brings them back to the pre pandemic levels of inequality that we already saw,” Lewis said.
More emergency visits for teen girls' mental health seen during second year of pandemic --A new study in JAMA Psychiatry shows emergency department (ED) visits and stays for mental health needs soared for adolescent females in the United States in the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising by 22% when compared to the year before the pandemic.In general, the authors of the study also found a significant increase (72%) in the percentage of youth in EDs with long onboarding (waiting in an ED or medical inpatient unit) times.The study used the health insurance claims of 4.1 million US enrollees between March 2019 and February 2022. Children ages 5 to 17 were considered in the final analysis. In total, there were 17,614 and 16,815 youth with at least one mental health ED visit in the baseline year (March 2019 to February 2020) and pandemic year 2 (March 2021 to February 2022), respectively.Comparing the baseline to pandemic year 2, there was a 6.7% increase in youth with any mental health ED visits (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.7% to 8.8%). Females had the largest increase in visits, at 22.1%. Male adolescent ED visits declined in the second pandemic year."Among females, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, or self-injury increased 43.6%," the authors said. Eating disorder visits increased by 120.4%."Multiple factors likely contribute to females' increase in mental distress including higher pandemic-related stress, more pandemic-related disruptions to school, and emotional abuse in the home. This may explain why the increase in ED visits for females was primarily driven by suicidal ideation, suicide attempt, and self-harm," the authors said.The fraction of ED visits that resulted in a psychiatric admission increased by 8.4% (95% CI, 5.5% to 11.2%)."One of the most concerning findings was the dramatic increase in the number of adolescents waiting multiple days in the emergency room before being admitted to facilities that can provide the level of treatment they need," said study author Haiden Huskamp, PhD, of Harvard University in a news release.The authors of the study said even before the pandemic, US adolescents were visiting the ED more for mental health crises. In 2021, they write, 20% of high school students seriously considered suicide, and 9% attempted suicide.
Religious right gets blindsided by angry parents in a Southern California school district— Three Southern California school board members backed by a far-right pastor narrowly won election last fall in campaigns fueled by pandemic rage. Then they banned critical race theory and rejected social studies materials that included LGBTQ rights hero Harvey Milk. Now, they’re fighting for their political lives. After just six months in office, those officials face a recall effort on top of a civil rights investigation launched by the state’s Democratic-led education department. Students have held protests, and irate parents and teachers are swarming the board’s meetings, feeling that their town — the fast-growing, politically diverse suburb of Temecula in Riverside County — has become consumed by partisan warfare. “We don’t want culture wars. We don’t want Fox News appearances,” Alex Douvas, a parent of two kids in the district who previously worked for two Republican congressmembers in Orange County, told the board recently. “Our schools are not ideological battlegrounds. They’re not platforms for religious evangelism. These are institutions for learning and growth.” The religious right saw an opening to jump into the parental rights movement amid intense backlash about pandemic-era school closures and mask mandates. But those policies have all but disappeared in schools, and it’s proving harder to sustain that level of outrage over teachings on race and gender. The effort to ban certain books and challenge curriculum has split Republicans and polled poorly with independent voters nationally. Local Democrats see the strategy flopping — and are already looking to capitalize on it in a part of the state that has become a battleground for control of the House. Joy Silver, chair of the Riverside County Democrats, said she’s intensely focused on winning down-ballot races like school board seats “because the battles are taking place there.” In Temecula, the political agenda embraced by school board trustees Joseph Komrosky, Danny Gonzalez and Jen Wiersma has set off a different kind of public outrage than was likely intended. The booing and shouting at a recent public hearing grew so loud that the board president — who appeared to be wearing a bullet-proof vest under his sweater — cleared the room. “To the extent you keep it focused on parents and students first, not teachers, I think there’s room where you can push back on quote-unquote “woke” agenda issues, but if you go too far in the other direction and are trying to make that the only issue you care about, I think you’re going to see predictable backlash,” California GOP consultant Rob Stutzman said in an interview. “I look at something like Temecula, and to me it’s an eye roll.”
Social media companies, beware: Governor says lawsuits coming in Utah - Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said Sunday he is getting ready to sue social media companies for the harm caused to his state’s young people.“In the coming months, you will see lawsuits being filed by the state of Utah to hold them accountable,” Cox, a Republican, said during an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”“We believe they’ve known about the dangers, some of this has been leaked out, Meta and others, very clear evidence that they knew the harms that their products were causing to kids, and that they intentionally tried to hide that information.” Cox signed legislation earlier this year that sets limits on the ways minors are able to use social media. The laws, which will take effect next year, set a digital curfew on social media users younger than 18, require minors to get parental consent to sign up for accounts and demand social media companies verify the ages of users in Utah.The laws are the first of their kind in the U.S., though Cox has acknowledged that they will be difficult to enforce — and could face legal challenges.“I suspect that at some point, the Supreme Court will weigh in on this decision when it comes to restricting youth access,” he said Sunday.“What we’re trying to do is give families more control over what is happening on social media. When you when you look at the new research that’s coming out, there’s not just a correlation between social media use and an increase in suicide, anxiety, depression, self-harm, there is a causal link there.”The goal, he added, is to give parents and kids more control over their experiences with social media, by “making these social media companies turn off the algorithms that we know are driving so much of this harmful addiction.”
Orgy of book banning, censorship continues in the US - The right-wing rampage against culture, and particularly the cultural level of the young, continues unabated in the US. Those actively supporting censorship and book banning are a fraction of the population, but between the active connivance of the Republican Party and the abject cowardice and impotence of the Democrats, these forces are able to wield considerable power. In Florida’s Orange County (whose county seat is Orlando), for example, the works at least temporarily excluded from the county’s classrooms include Gustave Flaubert’s Madame Bovary, John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost, E.M. Forster’s A Room With a View, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. The Orlando Sentinel reports that the books have been temporarily rejected by Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) “for sexual content that educators fear runs afoul of a new Florida law,” HB 1069-2023, passed by the Florida legislature and signed into law by the fascistic governor, Ron DeSantis. According to the ACLU, the bill allows anyone in a school district “to object to any material in the classroom or school library or on a reading list that depicts or describes any sexual conduct, even if it is not pornographic, if it is not for a health course. Such material would be removed pending investigation and subject to permanent removal.” Other works, among them four of Shakespeare’s plays, including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, have been approved for 10th through 12th grades only. An Orange County teacher noted that some “of the books now on the rejected list are ones that are included in the state-approved language arts textbook OCPS teachers use or in district-provided curriculum plans that have been in place in recent years.” One of the rejected works is excerpted in the textbook, while two others are in the curriculum plan. Another Orange County teacher told the Sentinel “she was ‘gobsmacked’ when she saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream was rejected initially and angry when novels she’d taught for Advanced Placement literature classes, including Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, were nixed, too.” In late June, Louisiana’s Democratic governor John Bel Edwards signed into law a measure restricting Louisiana minors’ access to material it defines as sexually explicit. Earlier in June, Edwards had indicated he thought the bill was not “necessary.” The law requires school libraries, according to the Louisiana Illuminator, “to create a card system so parents can prevent their children from checking out books deemed inappropriate. Libraries will also have to adopt policy language to limit minors’ access to material that describes ‘sexual conduct,’ which the new law defines in five paragraphs.” The bill was supported by Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry, the Republican Party-endorsed candidate for governor. The far-right Landry made himself notorious and something of a laughing stock by setting up a “tip line” called “Protecting Minors,” in November 2022, where would-be informers were encouraged to complain about librarians, teachers and other school and library personnel. The “snitch line” was a fiasco, as thousands of people sent protests, spam and denunciations of the very idea. According to the Illuminator, “Hundreds of users complained about The Bible, pointing to passages that describe explicit sexual activity, rape, incest and abortion.”
Rutgers University to raise costs for tuition, fees, meals and housing -Rutgers University on Monday approved increasing student tuition and fees by 6 percent each.The university’s Board of Governors also approved raising meal plans by 7 percent and student housing by 5 percent. That means the typical in-state arts and sciences undergraduate will pay an average of $387 more per semester for tuition, from $6,450 to $6,837. Mandatory fees will increase about $100 per semester for those students, according to the university.The increases are part of a $5.4 billion budget unanimously approved by the board for the upcoming 2023-24 school year.The rising costs to students and families follows a large infusion of state aid approved by state lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy to colleges and universities in the 2024 budget, which can help pay for new four-year faculty contracts and other costs at Rutgers. The new contracts will cost $184 million over that period, which includes retroactive payments for the 2023 fiscal year that just ended.Still, the university has been running at a deficit and faces its own rising costs — inflation, salaries and wages, utilities and, it said, “unprecedented increases” for employee benefits such as health insurance premiums and pension contributions. The newest budget lowers the university’s deficit from $125 million to about $77 million, officials said.“We are committed to providing access to an excellent academic experience and this budget advances that pledge while meeting our financial responsibilities during a very challenging time,” William E. Best, chair of the Rutgers Board of Governors, said in a statement. “We remain equally committed to strengthening financial aid programs that reduce net costs for a majority of our students.”Rutgers faculty and staff joined a national wave earlier this year when about 9,000 members of three unions walked out for the first time in the university’s 257-year history.The five-day strike ended after Murphy forced the two sides to more intense negotiations. But ending the impasse also came with the understanding that the state would be asked to shoulder much of the cost.
3 University of California academic workers charged with felony for chalking slogans on building - Three academic workers from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) were arrested at their homes last week for their role in a May 30 protest against the UC administration and its plan to go through with wage increases included in the recent contract that was pushed through by the United Auto Workers (UAW) bargaining teams at the conclusion of a strike last year. Jessica Ng, a postdoctoral researcher, William Schneider, a graduate student, and a third, unidentified, academic worker were arrested by UCSD police on charges of felony vandalism and conspiracy to commit a crime. The alleged crime stems from demonstrators writing messages in washable marker and chalk outside the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Felony vandalism, in California, is a crime punishable with up to three years in state prison and a fine of up to $50,000. In an interview with KPBS News, Schneider said, “This is, in my opinion, very clearly part of a larger coordinated crackdown of union activities across the UC. UC has systematically tried to renege on the contract they signed with UAW and the graduate student researchers union.” The fact that workers are now forced to protest for the enforcement of the contracts completely undercuts the UAW’s claim that the largest academic workers strike in US history—which involved 48,000 postdocs, academic researchers, graduate student instructors and other academic workers—ended last December with a “historic” victory. The nearly 50,000 academic workers initially walked out in November, demanding adequate wage increases and a cost-of-living-adjustment (COLA) to meet California’s exorbitant expenses, better healthcare coverage for dependents and protections against academic bullying. The UAW bureaucracy, however, rapidly abandoned the demand for COLA and settled for a $34,000 starting salary down from the initial demand that workers in UAW 2865 receive a $54,000 starting salary. The strike started as a joint action of workers inside UAW locals 2865, 5180, and Student Researchers United. Many rank-and-file workers responded to the bureaucracy’s actions by organizing for a “no” vote, which resulted in nearly 40 percent of the workforce in UAW Local 2865 rejecting the contract. However, the UAW was able to ram through the contract by using its official channels to campaign for a “yes” vote while denying the same resources to those opposed to the contract. The UAW divided the struggle by having postdoc workers settle separately from graduate students, and also by preventing dissident members of the union from speaking out at Zoom meetings criticizing the contract. The UAW also hired Brightline Communications, a major Democratic Party PR firm to oversee its campaign for a yes vote.
Justices teach when the Supreme Court isn't in session. It can double as an all-expenses-paid trip (AP) — For decades, the University of Hawaii law school has marketed itsJurist-In-Residence program to the Supreme Court as an all-expenses-paid getaway, with the upside of considerable “down time” in paradise.The justices have enthusiastically participated. “Your colleagues who were here most recently were Justices (Ruth Bader) Ginsburg, (Anthony) Kennedy, and (Stephen) Breyer, and I believe they all would recommend the experience highly,” the law school’s then-Dean Aviam Soifer wrote in a 2010 email trying to draw Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the school in Honolulu. “We will, of course, cover first-class airfare, excellent hotel accommodations, and all other travel expenses.” “Should we have hope of having the Justice here while the icy winds blow in Washington?” he wrote in another. In a follow-up before the justice’s 2012 visit, he included the salutation “Warm (and yet comfortable) greetings from paradise.” Teaching is encouraged as a way to demystify the nation’s highest court while exposing the justices to a cross-section of the public. For decades, they have traveled the globe during court recesses to lecture. It is a permissible practice so long as their earning are less than the court’s roughly $30,000 cap on outside income.In a statement responding to questions, the Supreme Court noted the $30,000 figure and added that “teaching must be at an accredited educational institution or continuing legal educational program and must be approved in advance by the Chief Justice (or by the Associate Justices if it involves teaching by the Chief Justice).”Documents obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests reveal that some all-expenses-paid trips — to Italy, Iceland and Hawaii, among others — are light on classroom instruction, with ample time carved out for the justices’ leisure.
Supreme Court justices and donors mingle at campus visits. These documents show the ethical dilemmas (AP) — When Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas headlined a 2017 program at McLennan Community College in Texas, his hosts had more than a speech in mind. Working with the prominent conservative lawyer Ken Starr, school officials crafted a guest list for a dinner at the home of a wealthy Texas businessman, hoping an audience with Thomas would be a reward for school patrons -– and an inducement to prospective donors.Before Justice Elena Kagan visited the University of Colorado’s law school in 2019, one official in Boulder suggested a “larger donor to staff ratio” for a dinner with her. AfterJustice Sonia Sotomayor confirmed she would attend a 2017 question-and-answer session at Clemson University and a private luncheon, officials there made sure to invite $1 million-plus donors to the South Carolina college.The Associated Press obtained tens of thousands of pages of emails and other documentsthat reveal the extent to which public colleges and universities have seen visits by justices as opportunities to generate donations -– regularly putting justices in the room with influential donors, including some whose industries have had interests before the court. The documents also reveal that justices spanning the court’s ideological divide have lent the prestige of their positions to partisan activity, headlining speaking events with prominent politicians, or advanced their own personal interests, such as sales of their books, through college visits. The conduct would likely be prohibited if done by lower court federal judges. But the Supreme Court’s definition of banned fundraising is so narrow -– simply an event that raises more than it costs or where guests are asked for donations -– that it does not account for soliciting contributors later while reminding them of the special access they were afforded.
Inside the AP’s investigation into the ethics practices of the Supreme Court justices (AP) — An Associated Press examination of the ethics practices of the U.S. Supreme Court relied on documents obtained from more than 100 public records requests to public colleges, universities and other institutions that have hosted the justices over the past decade. To conduct its review, the AP surveyed local news stories and social media and obtained data from ScotusTracker, a website that logged justices’ activities, to develop a list of appearances over the past 10 years.In late 2022 and early this year, the AP submitted records requests to the public institutions on that list, citing individual state statutes that require the disclosure of certain documents to the public. The AP separately queried more than 100 private colleges, universities and charities that have also hosted justices or organized events for them, requesting that they provide the same information that was asked of public institutions. Some confirmed basic details of the visits, but few provided substantive information. The AP cataloged the travel and perks afforded to the justices. The AP also compiled lists of guests, including donors and politicians, who were invited to private receptions with justices and vetted them wherever possible against information in federal court records, Federal Election Commission filings, online photo albums of events and other publicly available data.The responses among public institutions varied widely. Some schools, including the University of Rhode Island, Ohio State University, Stony Brook University and the University of California, Davis, provided records free of charge. Some schools turned over thousands of pages of records, including George Mason University and the University of Kentucky. McLennan Community College in Waco, Texas, produced 104 pages of records in March and then, following a $110 payment, shipped by mail a box of blue folders containing hundreds more pages. A reporting trip was also taken there so that a journalist could observe firsthand the site of a dinner that the college organized for Justice Clarence Thomas. Some institutions were less forthcoming. The AP went to the Illinois state attorney general to get a binding opinion directing the Chicago Public Library to produce documents related to a visit by Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Other schools, including the University of Arizona, have said their search for records remained ongoing after more than six months. But some schools responded to records requests with fee demands that the AP deemed unreasonable. The initial fee cited by the University of Georgia for processing two requests was $18,800.50, though it was later reduced after the AP narrowed its request.
Inappropriate dental antibiotics cost US healthcare system millions, study finds --Inappropriate dental antibiotic prescriptions to prevent infective endocarditis cost the US healthcare system nearly $31 million a year, according to a modeling study published today on Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology.Although guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American Dental Association limit the use of prophylactic antibiotics to prevent infective endocarditis to those with cardiac conditions at highest risk, research has shown that 83.1% of dental antibiotics prescribed for that reason are inappropriate.To estimate the costs associated with this practice, researchers used 2018 US Census data on adults aged 18 and older who had a dental visit with an antibiotic prescribed and on the reported incidence of infective endocarditis among those without predisposing cardiac conditions who underwent dental procedures. They calculated drug costs; adverse event costs associated with prescriptions of amoxicillin, cephalexin, and clindamycin; and out-of-pocket costs (co-pays).In their base case, 167 million US adults have a dental visit each year, and 7.9 million (4.8%) receive prophylactic (preventive) antibiotics. They calculated that if 83.1% of those prescriptions are inappropriate, antibiotic costs for the healthcare system would amount to $2.69 million, and costs of adverse events (eg,Clostridioides difficile and hypersensitivity) would amount to $5.82 million for amoxicillin, $1.99 million for clindamycin, and $380,849 for cephalexin. Patient out-of-pocket expenses for the antibiotic prescriptions would total $20.5 million.
How the pandemic spurred a push to expand methadone access -A bipartisan push to expand methadone access across America is picking up momentum after restrictions on the medication were relaxed during the pandemic.Methadone is one of the most effective treatments available for opioid use disorder (OUD), however experts have long feared that easy access could backfire since methadone carries its own potential for abuse and unintentional overdose.But the pandemic provided an opportunity to see the real-world impact of dispensing restrictions being relaxed, as patients and clinicians experienced a more open system. Under current federal law, methadone can only be dispensed at licensed and accredited opioid treatment programs (OTPs), where patients take the medication under the supervision of a practitioner, with the potential of taking doses home after some time under stable treatment.When the pandemic began in 2020, however, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) swiftly issued guidance allowing states to relax OTP requirements and permit patients to take home doses of methadone sooner than usual. “That gave us several years of experience in at least a somewhat more open-access system,” said Wilson Compton, deputy director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.“So there’s been an opportunity to hear from patients, what they thought about it, to look at administrative data and even the overdose death data to see if there’s evidence of potential harms from the relaxation of access to methadone in the opioid treatment programs.”A 2022 study that Compton was a part of found that methadone-involved overdose deaths remained stable after the onset of the pandemic despite the take-home policy change, while the rate of non-methadone opioid overdoses rose.The White House has signaled an eagerness to explore further options for expanding access to methadone. Rahul Gupta, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in an interview earlier this year that “all options are on the table” when it comes to increased methadone access.
New air monitor detects COVID-19 variants in 5 minutes --A new proof-of-concept device from researchers at Washington University in St. Louis monitors air samples for COVID-19 virus variant detection in about 5 minutes, according to a study today inNature Communications.The work is based on an inter-disciplinary team's previous construction of a micro-immunoelectrode (MIE) biosensor that detects amyloid beta as a biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers exchanged the antibody that recognizes amyloid beta for a nanobody from a llama that recognizes the spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.Using wet cyclone technology, the biosensor allows air samples to mix at high velocities creating a surface vortex trapping the virus aerosols. This allows the biosensor to detect virus particles in collected fluids."The high virus recovery by the wet cyclone can be attributed to its extremely high flow rate, which allows it to sample a larger volume of air over a 5-minute sample collection compared with commercially available samplers," said co-senior author Rajan Chakrabarty, PhD, in a press release. Chakrabarty leads the Complex Aerosol Systems Research Laboratory at Washington University. The device is compact, standing at 12 inches wide and 10 inches tall, and has a flow rate of 1,000 liters per minute. The authors of the study said the device could be used by schools, hospitals, and public places to detect SARS-CoV-2, as well as other airborne viruses including RSV and influenza. It lights up when a virus is detected, alerting its operators to increase air flow in the room.
House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic begins political inquisition of scientists -On Tuesday, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, led by Republican Representative Brad Wenstrup, a podiatrist and former US Army reservist, interrogated two leading authors of the research note titled Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2, published in March 2020 and well known in the scientific community for being the first significant investigation into where the virus which causes COVID-19 came from.The purpose of the hearings was intended to discredit Dr. Kristian Andersen, professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at Scripps Research Institute, and Dr. Robert Garry, professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Tulane Medical School, by claiming they “vilified and suppressed the lab leak theory in pursuit of a preferred, coordinated narrative that was not based in truth or science.”Wenstrup claimed that he had evidence “that the conclusions championed by the co-authors of Proximal Origin are not only inaccurate but were crafted to appease a stated political motive.” This involved a supposed cover-up of the real source of the virus, the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), in which the scientists engaged at the direction of two top health officials, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Francis Collins.The Republican-based scenario, initially advanced by fascist Trump counselor Steve Bannon, insists that Fauci and Collins had pushed to publish the paper showing a natural origin of SARS-CoV-2 to escape responsibility for creating the virus. They feared that otherwise they would be implicated in offering millions in grants to EcoHealth Alliance, a US-based global nonprofit scientific research organization, which worked with the Chinese lab to conduct studies on bat coronaviruses.Dr. Andersen addressed this right-wing conspiracy theory in his prepared testimony to the hearing. He declared, “The title of this hearing, ‘Investigating the Proximal Origin of a Cover-Up,’ is directly targeted at our March 2020 peer-reviewed study in Nature Medicine titled ‘The Proximal Origin of SARS-CoV-2.’”He continued: It has been alleged that our paper was initiated and orchestrated by Dr. Anthony Fauci to disprove, dismiss, and cover up a lab origin of SARS-CoV-2 as directed at a February 1, 2020, conference call. ... It has also been suggested that a $8.9 million federal “WARN-ID” grant awarded in 2020 to myself and colleagues from five different countries was a quid-pro-quo we received for changing our conclusions about the likely origin of SARS-CoV-2. Let me categorically say that these allegations are absurd and false.Throughout the hearing, the two scientists gave calm and measured testimony rebutting the conspiracy theory at every point and arguing that proponents of the “lab leak” had not offered a shred of factual evidence. The Republicans howled and preened before the television cameras, appealing to Donald Trump and his fascist supporters.And the Democrats contented themselves with a few “for the record” statements of support for the scientists but otherwise did nothing to interrupt the display witch-hunting worthy of Senator Joe McCarthy at his worst. They are far more concerned with maintaining bipartisan support for the war in Ukraine than in fighting a conspiracy theory launched by fascists like former Trump counselor Steve Bannon.
Dr. McCullough Uncovers Smoking Gun: Autopsies Found 74% of deaths related to mRNA vaccination - The legacy of the COVID-19 pandemic and the widespread use of experimental vaccines continue to wreak havoc on the health of everyone on the planet, but now, there is frightening new data that suggests men are even more at risk. Dr. Peter McCullough, Chief Scientific Officer at The Wellness Company, alongside his Chief Medical Board published an explosive scientific study in the prestigious scientific journal, The Lancet on July 6, 2023. The shockwaves are still being felt. The study, titled A Systematic Review of Autopsy Findings in Deaths after COVID-19 Vaccination, exposed direct statistical evidence of our greatest fear: the COVID-19 vaccinations are a direct cause of DEATH, driving the excess mortality that we’ve witnessed after the government-pushed vaccination campaign. From Dr. McCullough’s study: After surveying data from 325 autopsies, “a total of 270 deaths (73.9%) were independently adjudicated as directly due to or significantly contributed to by COVID-19 vaccination.” The review found that the primary organ system failure that caused death was the cardiovascular system (53% of cases). Says Dr. McCullough: “Going forward in response to sudden unexplained deaths reported in the press, it is reasonable to conclude the cause of death is a fatal COVID-19 vaccine injury until proven otherwise.” Unfortunately, the story doesn’t end there. The study’s explosive findings ranked it as one of the most downloaded studies within 24 hours of publishing. Then, pathetically, the predictable happened: “prestigious” journal The Lancet removed the study from their website, claiming “the study’s conclusions are not supported by the study methodology.”
Report details COVID-19 spillover events in white-tailed deer -- A report yesterday in Nature Communications details the spread and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in white-tailed deer across the United States, including at least 109 spillover events from people and 39 instances of deer-to-deer transmission. Researchers also noted three cases of potential spillover from white-tailed deer back to humans.The findings are based on 8,830 respiratory samples from free-ranging white-tailed deer across Washington, DC, and 26 US states from November 2021 to April 2022. A total of 944 samples were positive for SARS-CoV-2, and researchers sequenced the genomes from 391 samples.Sequencing showed Alpha, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron lineages, and multiple lineages were circulating among deer at the same time."Out of the 282 white-tailed deer viruses analyzed, 238 were found to be grouped into 109 clusters that also contained human SARS-CoV-2 viruses," the authors said. "For each cluster, a SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequence from a human was identified as the precursor virus with at least 99.85% nucleotide identity, indicating at least one independent spillover event from humans to white-tailed deer."Of the 109 spillover events, 106 were within the same state, including 64 that were human-to-deer, 39 that were human-to-deer-to-deer, and 3 human-to-deer-to-human.White-tailed deer are some of the most common mammals in the United States, with approximately 30 million animals in both rural and urban settings and a high number of human interactions, the authors said. Previous studies showed approximately 40% of tested white-tailed deer were exposed to SARS-CoV-2, as early as January 2020, in four sample US states."Continued large-scale surveillance of white-tailed deer is necessary to understand the evolution and distribution of genetic variants in white-tailed deer, evaluate whether the white-tailed deer are a potential reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 viruses, and the role of white-tailed deer in ecology and natural history of SARS-CoV-2," the authors concluded.
Study: COVID spread from deer to humans multiple times -The coronavirus spread from deer to humans at least a few times based on an analysis of samples taken from the animal, according to a new study. The analysis published Monday in the scientific journal Nature revealed that researchers found three possible cases of mutated variants of the virus from deer spreading to humans. Those cases appear to have originally stemmed from the virus spreading from humans to the deer and then mutating and spreading back to humans. The researchers, several of whom work for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Agriculture, collected 8,830 respiratory samples from free-ranging white-tailed deer from 26 states and Washington, D.C., between November 2021 and April 2022. They identified 282 deer infected with COVID-19 and 34 different lineages of the virus in the samples collected, including those belonging to the alpha, gamma and delta variants that were more common earlier in the pandemic and the omicron variant that has dominated cases more recently. An analysis showed that at least 109 individual spillover events happened in which humans spread the virus to deer. That subsequently led to at least 39 incidences of deer-to-deer transmission and three cases of deer-to-human transmission. The delta and omicron variants were most commonly being reported among humans during the time that the researchers gathered the samples, but alpha and gamma were still being infrequently reported. Researchers from Ohio State University had warned in January 2022 of the possibility of the virus spreading from deer to humans. They found at least three different strains of the virus in more than 35 percent of the 360 wild white-tailed deer they studied in northeastern Ohio between January and March 2021.
Zoo outbreak highlights human-to-animal COVID-19 risk -- In a new report published in Eurosurveillance, Dutch investigators describe an outbreak of COVID-19 in gorillas and lions at the Rotterdam Zoo in late 2021, despite the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) by their zookeepers.SARS-CoV-2 has been detected in several zoo animals, likely caused by human-to-animal transmission. Such transmission has also been documented among domesticated and wild animals. Transmission dynamics must be understood, the authors of the study said, to assess spillover risk and protect animals from SARS-CoV-2 from a One Health perspective.The Rotterdam outbreak occurred during a 6-day period in November 2021, when multiple western lowland gorillas and Asiatic lions experienced fever, coughing and lethargy. Zookeepers had been wearing PPE since 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and zoo visitors were required to show proof of vaccination, or a negative COVID test result to gain admission.Extensive testing of the animals and 19 staff deemed direct contacts and 21 staff deemed indirect contact suggested human-to-animal transmission. Genomic data of two zookeepers and the lions and gorillas clustered, which may indicate transmission between the animals and their zookeepers, the authors said."We considered one or multiple asymptomatic infectious zookeepers, who may have had contact with each other in private settings or in the changing rooms, as the most likely outbreak source," the authors said. "Subsequent animal-to-animal transmission is likely given the high attack rate among the animals and the consistent PPE use of the zookeepers."Strict measures should be taken in zoos to protect against SARS-CoV-2 spillover events, the authors conclude. "It is crucial to adopt stringent prevention and control strategies to avoid introduction of respiratory pathogens in animal populations," they write.
Global COVID markers continue to decline | CIDRAP -Global COVID-19 indicators continue to decline in most parts of the world, apart from an uptick in deaths in the African region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today in its latest weekly update.With fewer countries testing and reporting cases, the WHO said that trends in hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions are more accurate indicators, though only small percentages of countries regularly report those levels. Hospitalizations declined 47% over the past 28 days, and, of 19 countries that consistently report their levels, only Malta and Bangladesh reported increases of 20% or more over the past month.ICU admissions dropped 66% over the same period, and, of 15 countries that regularly report ICU data, none reported increases of 20% or more over the past 4 weeks.Deaths in Africa were up 43%, though the rise was from a low baseline level, the WHO said. Though tracking cases isn't a true gauge of COVID activity, the WHO said some countries are still feeling the burden of the disease. Countries that saw notable increases over the past 28 days include Zambia, some territories in the Caribbean, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Kirbati.Regarding variant tracking, the WHO said the proportion of the Omicron XBB.1.5 variant continue to decline steadily and is at 19.8%, while levels of XBB.1.16 are still rising, now at 22.1%. Three variants under monitoring also showed rises, including XBB, XBB.1.9.2, and XBB.2.3.In its weekly update today, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said COVID activity continues to remain at decreasing or stable levels. Luxembourg was the only country to report a rise in cases, and Malta reported a rise in hospitalizations and deaths.Of nine countries reporting an adequate volume of sequencing results, the proportion of the XBB.1.5 subvariant was 92.9%.
More than a third of COVID survivors in Italy had persistent symptoms at 2 years --Of 230 COVID-19 survivors in Italy infected during the first pandemic wave, 36.1% still had symptoms at 2 years, finds a study published today in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.A University of Insubria–led team interviewed 230 hospitalized and nonhospitalized adults followed at Udine Hospital 6, 12, and 24 months after illness onset in March to May 2020. Average patient age was 54.7 years, 53.5% were women, and 95.6% had received an mRNA vaccine booster.Eighty-three patients (36.1%) reported long-COVID symptoms at 2 years, the most common of which were fatigue (14.4%) and rheumatologic (14.4%) and psychiatric (9.6%) symptoms. The proportion of patients reporting long COVID was lower than that at 6 and 12 months (40.2% and 47.2%, respectively).Forty-six (55.4%) of long-COVID patients said they sought treatment, with 20 (43.5%) seeking primary care, 6.5% visiting the emergency department, and 23 (50.0%) seeing a specialist. A total of 35.7% of patients said their symptoms had improved by 2 years compared with at 1 year, while 19.1% said their condition was unchanged, and 3.5% said it was worse.Independent risk factors for long COVID were female sex (odds ratio [OR], 2.50), a proportional increase in the number of symptoms during acute illness (OR, 1.40), and the presence of underlying illnesses (OR, 1.57). Vaccinated and unvaccinated patients reported comparable rates of long-COVID symptoms at 2 years (30.0% and 36.4%, respectively).Thirty-eight patients (16.5%) experienced reinfection, and there was no significant difference in long-COVID status at 2 years in reinfected or non-reinfected patients (39.5% vs 35.4%)."An international coordinated multidisciplinary research informing tailored health-care programs is warranted to improve our understanding of the pathogenesis and management of this new medical challenge that seems to be still neglected by the health services but that may lead to an emerging global crisis," the study authors wrote.
The immunology of long COVID - Abstract: Long COVID is the patient-coined term for the disease entity whereby persistent symptoms ensue in a significant proportion of those who have had COVID-19, whether asymptomatic, mild or severe. Estimated numbers vary but the assumption is that, of all those who had COVID-19 globally, at least 10% have long COVID. The disease burden spans from mild symptoms to profound disability, the scale making this a huge, new health-care challenge…. There is support for a role of persistent SARS-CoV-2 reservoirs and/or an effect of Epstein–Barr virus reactivation, and evidence from immune subset changes for broad immune perturbation. Thus, the current picture is one of convergence towards a map of an immunopathogenic aetiology of long COVID, though as yet with insufficient data for a mechanistic synthesis or to fully inform therapeutic pathways.The lists of long COVID symptoms were initially derived through reports from patient groups, leading to a keynote online survey conducted at the end of 2020 from nearly 4,000 individuals across 56 countries that supplied symptom data… [L]ong COVID is a truly multi-organ, multisystem disease, with symptoms that appear to indicate a pathological process beyond and distinct from just the ACE2-positive tissues targeted for viral ingress during the acute infection…. For a disease process with such a diverse array of symptom combinations, the challenge has been whether and how to stratify patients into specific clusters20. Proponents of the approach would argue that this is a prerequisite for the tailored management of such a heterogeneous disease entity; the opposing view would be that such clusters impose an artificial structure on a highly fluid process whereby an individual may be prioritized for referral for neurocognitive symptoms yet may, at other times, suffer considerably from, for example, breathlessness. … In summary, as the field moves towards consensus stratifications that may be valuable for clinical referral pathways, the pressing challenge is to navigate, via specific biomarker testing[3], the relation of clusters to differential mechanisms and pathologies. The clinical definition of long COVID is still a work in progress. Already there is a tendency to draw a distinction between the familiar spectrum of persistent symptoms such as fatigue, breathlessness and neurocognitive impairment, on the one hand, and increased risk of overt ‘lifetime’ impacts such as increased risk of stroke, myocardial infarction, and types 1 and 2 diabetes, on the other. In the absence of clear mechanistic pathways, we argue that both sets of outcomes need to be considered within the framework of long COVID. If long COVID encompasses consequences of the infection beyond 4 weeks, then increased lifetime risk of neurological, cardiovascular, renal or metabolic disease events certainly qualify within the term ‘long’. The oncoming burden of long COVID faced by patients, health-care providers, governments and economies is so large as to be unfathomable, which is possibly why minimal high-level planning is currently allocated to it[4] If 10% of acute infections lead to persistent symptoms, it could be predicted that ~400 million individuals globally are in need of support for long COVID. The biggest unknowns remain the joined-up scheme of its pathogenesis and thus the best candidate therapeutics to be trialled in randomized controlled trials, along with a better understanding of the kinetics of recovery and the factors influencing this. Some countries have invested in first-round funding for the pilot investigations. From the above, far more will be needed.
Long COVID prevalence and impact on quality of life 2 years after acute COVID-19 0 Abstract: There has been an increasing interest in the long-term impact of long COVID. However, only a few studies have investigated the clinical manifestations of long COVID after 24 months of acute infection…. After excluding the cases of COVID-19 reinfection, 132 individuals were included in the final analysis. Among the 132 participants, 94 (71.2%) experienced symptoms of long COVID. The most frequently reported symptoms were fatigue (34.8%), amnesia (30.3%), concentration difficulties (24.2%), insomnia (20.5%), and depression (19.7%). Notably, no significant differences were noted in the incidence of long COVID at 24 months in terms of the number of vaccinations received. Although the neuropsychiatric quality of life improved over time, it continued to affect 32.7% of participants. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to assess the long-term impact of COVID-19 at 24 months after acute COVID-19 in patients with documented COVID-19 vaccination and without history of reinfection. Based on the findings of this study, long COVID symptoms improved over time and neuropsychiatric symptoms tended to persist longer than other symptoms up to 24 months after COVID-19.Conclusions:Although long COVID usually improves over time, neuropsychiatric symptoms can persist for up to 24 months after an acute infection and occur more frequently than other symptoms. Patients with mild COVID-19 disease, who account for the majority of patients with COVID-19, may continue to have a poor quality of life. In addition, the occurrence of long COVID does not appear to be significantly affected by COVID-19 vaccination or the number of vaccinations received.
Natural history of long-COVID in a nationwide, population cohort study - Abstract: Previous studies on the natural history of long-COVID have been few and selective. Without comparison groups, disease progression cannot be differentiated from symptoms originating from other causes. The Long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS) is a Scotland-wide, general population cohort of adults who had laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection matched to PCR-negative adults.Understanding the scale and natural history of long-COVID is essential to planning health and social care. The majority of studies report the prevalence of long-COVID at a single timepoint post-infection, with some adjusting for pre-existing symptoms. Less is known about changes in long-COVID over time…. [W]hile long-COVID may be a stable condition in some, existing evidence suggests that others may experience recovery, relapse, or progression. We use serial questionnaire data from the long-COVID in Scotland Study (Long-CISS)20 to investigate the natural history of long-COVID in an unselected, general population cohort with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection compared with symptoms in an age-, sex-, and socioeconomically-matched group of people who have never been infected.This study reports the trajectory of long-COVID in the general population compared to contemporaneous changes in symptoms and quality of life in a comparison group that had never been infected. Beyond 6 months following SARS-CoV-2 infection, there was no significant overall change in either self-reported recovery status or the percentage of people reporting at least one symptom known to be associated with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, 12% of people reported improvements in their recovery status, and 12% reported deterioration. These different trajectories were driven by different symptoms. In some people, altered taste, smell and confusion (‘brain fog’) resolved over time whereas others reported late onset dry or productive cough and hearing problems. These changes were not explained by underlying trends or confounding. Our findings demonstrate the importance of exploring individual symptoms rather than only grouping them together as a composite outcome.
Gene linked to long COVID found in analysis of thousands of patients - The first genome-wide hunt to find genetic risk factors for long COVID has yielded a hit: a DNA sequence near a gene called FOXP4, which is active in the lungs and in some immune cells… The study, which was released as a preprint on 1 July1, used data collected from 6,450 people with long COVID across 16 countries.For more than three years, the global COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative has been searching for DNA sequences that are associated with a risk of developing severe COVID-19. That hunt, which is ongoing, has implicated genes involved in the immune system and in allowing the virus SARS-CoV-2 to enter cells.The long-COVID study is a spin-off from that effort, says Hugo Zeberg, a geneticist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and a lead author of the preprint. To study the condition, the team compiled data from 24 studies involving a total of nearly 6,500 people diagnosed with long COVID, as well as more than one million other participants who served as controls.In one analysis that combined data from 11 of those studies, researchers found a particular region of the genome that was associated with about 1.6-fold higher odds of developing long COVID. That segment of DNA is near a gene called FOXP4, which is active in the lungs and other organs. The variant linked to long COVID is also associated with higher expression of FOXP4 in lung cells. Previous research has linked the same gene to an increased risk of severe COVID-19, and Zeberg and his colleagues found that it is also associated with lung cancer. Although having severe COVID-19 increases the risk of developing long COVID, the team found that the contribution of the DNA variant to long-COVID risk was too large to be explained by its link to severe COVID-19 alone. “This variant has a much stronger impact on long COVID than its impact on severity,” says Zeberg. Replicating that finding in other data sets would help to strengthen the study’s conclusions, says Zhongshan Cheng, a bioinformatician at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. Many of the data used in the long-COVID analysis were also used in the analysis that found a link between FOX4P and severe COVID-19, he notes. Fresh data would help to rule out the possibility that other factors, such as lung cancer, could have influenced the apparent association with FOX4P.
A fourth of Kansas City school nasal swabs test positive for respiratory viruses, study finds -- Surveillance at a large school district in Kansas City, Missouri, found that 25% of nasal swabs from students and staff tested positive for common non-COVID respiratory viruses, according to a study today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.To determine the prevalence of respiratory viruses in school students and staff members, researchers tested samples from a large school district in Kansas City that includes 33 pre-kindergarten (pre-K) through grade 12 schools during the 2022-23 school year.Among the 894 study participants, 639 (71.5%) were students (representing 3.0% of total district enrollment), and 255 (28.5%) were staff members (representing 7.1% of the total). Researchers tested 3,232 surveillance specimens, including 872 (27.0%) from staff and 2,360 (73.0%) from students. Among 2,393 completed surveys, pre-K students reported the highest prevalence of having one or more symptoms—41.1%—compared with 14.0% among high school students.Overall, 805 specimens (24.9%) tested positive for any virus (95% confidence interval, 23.4% to 26.4%). A substantially higher percentage of pre-K specimens tested positive (40.0%) compared with staff member specimens (14.1%). Among all samples, rhinovirus or enterovirus was most common (found in 12.1% of samples), followed by seasonal coronaviruses (5.6%). The study authors conclude, "It is important to implement strategies to prevent and reduce the spread of infectious diseases, including staying up to date with recommended vaccinations, including COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, practicing good hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick, and improving indoor ventilation."
South African study highlights threat of deadly multidrug-resistant infections in low-birthweight infants --A study conducted at a neonatal unit in South Africa found that one third of late-onset sepsis (LOS) cases in very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants were caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), 41% of which proved fatal, researchers reported yesterday in Open Forum Infectious Diseases.For the study, a team of US and South African researchers analyzed data on VLBW infants who were admitted to Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital in Johannesburg from March 2015 to December 2020. The data collected included demographic and clinical characteristics, length of hospital stay, risk factors for MDRO infection and mortality, and microbiology results.Of 2,570 VLBW infants admitted during the study period, 869 (34%) were characterized as having LOS, and 287 (33%) LOS cases were caused by an MDRO. Of the infants with LOS caused by an MDRO, 119 (41%) died during their hospitalization. The highest mortality occurred among patients infected with gram-negative bacteria. The pathogens with the highest mortality rates were Acinetobacter spp. (53%), Pseudomonas spp. (45%), extended-spectrum beta-lactamase Klebsiella spp. (43%), and Escherichia coli (42%)..Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that infants with congenital infections (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 5.13; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.19 to 22.02) or history of necrotizing enterocolitis (aOR, 2.17; 95% CI, 1.05 to 4.49) were at significantly higher risk for MDRO infections, likely because of exposure to prolonged antimicrobial therapy during hospitalization.The study authors say the findings highlight the serious challenge that MDROs pose to neonatal intensive care units in developing countries."Antimicrobial stewardship programs, infection control protocols, ongoing surveillance, rapid diagnostic tests, and novel treating agents for MDRO are crucial," they wrote. "Research efforts should prioritize the development of new antibiotics and should include the neonatal population in the dosing evaluations needed for these efforts to impact the MDRO burden among these infants."
Southern Hemisphere flu activity rises; Central America reports hot spots - Southern Hemisphere flu activity continues to rise in some countries, though levels have stabilized or are declining in others, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in itslatest update, which covers roughly the middle 2 weeks of June.Australia's flu detections rose over that period, with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) activity also elevated. New Zealand's flu activity remains low, though levels are rising in some of the Pacific islands. South Africa's flu activity appears to have peaked at a high level in early June.Flu declined in South America's temperate countries, the WHO said, and illness levels were reported as low in the region's tropical countries.Some Central American countries reported increased flu levels, with Costa Rica reporting extraordinary levels, Honduras reporting high activity, and Nicaragua and Panama reporting moderate activity. Mexico's flu activity is higher than expected for this time of year. In tropical Asia, Bangladesh reported a slight increase.Of respiratory samples that tested positive for flu at national labs during the reporting period, 67.4% were influenza A, and, of the subtyped samples, 74.3% were the 2009 H1N1 virus. All characterized influenza B viruses belonged to the Victoria lineage.
- Takeda yesterday announced that it voluntarily withdrew its Food and Drug Administration (FDA) licensing application for its dengue vaccine candidate because of issues with data collection that can't be resolved during the current review cycle. The company said it would further evaluate the plan for the vaccine, given the need to protect travelers and those living in dengue-endemic areas of the United States, such as Puerto Rico. The vaccine is already approved in several endemic and non-endemic countries. Currently, the only FDA-approved dengue vaccine is GSK's Dengvaxia, which is indicated only for children ages 6 to 16 who have evidence of previous infection and live in endemic areas.
- Trinidad and Tobago's health minister yesterday reported the country's first mpox case, which involves a middle-aged man who has a travel history, according to a local media report. Contact tracing is under way, and health officials are planning a vaccination push. The World Health Organization in its latestupdate on the current global outbreak said 88,288 cases, 149 of them fatal, have been reported in 112 countries.
- Ten states have reported 36 human West Nile virus (WNV) cases this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its latest update, which notes that levels of the mosquito-borne illness rise in the summer and continue into fall and can fluctuate by year. Arizona has the most cases, with 25 reported to date. So far, 23 neuroinvasive infections have been reported. In a related development, the Texas Department of State Health Services yesterday reported its first human WNV case of the year, in a resident of Dallas County who was diagnosed as having neuroinvasive disease.
Senate hearing highlights superbug threats, solutions -A panel of experts in infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and drug development today urged US lawmakers to support legislation that could help revitalize the antibiotic development pipeline.At a hearing held by a subcommittee of the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, the experts spoke about the rising threat AMR poses to public health and modern medicine and the role that infection prevention, antibiotic stewardship, diagnostics, and a bolstered infectious disease workforce can play in addressing the problem.But they reiterated that Congress and the federal government ultimately have the power to address the biggest problem facing efforts to tackle drug-resistant superbugs—the broken marketplace for new antibiotics."The most important thing this subcommittee can do is to advance a policy to establish a pull incentive, such as a subscription model, to spur the discovery and development of novel antimicrobials," said Helen Boucher, MD, dean and professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.Joining Boucher on the panel was Christine Ann Miller, president and CEO of drugmaker Melinta Therapeutics, a company that has several antibiotics and antifungals in its portfolio.Miller said the issue that has prompted many companies to abandon antibiotic research and development (R&D) is neither lack of innovation nor a slow approval process. There are innovative products in the pipeline, she noted, and Congress has worked with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to streamline the approval process for new antibiotics that can treat resistant infections.The problem, Miller explained, is that many of the small companies that develop antibiotics run out of money because newly approved antibiotics are infrequently used. She called for reforms to the reimbursement system and novel mechanisms to "decouple" payment for antibiotics from sales volume."The only way to combat these life-threatening infections is to continually innovate newer, safer antimicrobials and ensure that patients have access to these innovations," Miller told the panel. "Unless we see changes to the post-approval side of the equation, the ability to bring these products to patients remains in jeopardy."To rectify the issue, Miller and Boucher both voiced their support for the PASTEUR (Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance) Act, a bill re-introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers on April 27. The legislation, which was previously introduced in 2020 and 2021 but has never received a vote despite widespread support, would create a subscription-style payment model for new antibiotics.
Peru's spike in GBS cases, deaths prompts health emergency declaration --Peru's health ministry on July 8 declared a health emergency due to a rise in Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) cases, and yesterday the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) fleshed out some of the details, including that 191 cases meeting the country's case definition have been recorded, 4 of them fatal.Eight departments have reported cases, with Lima and La Libertad among the hardest-hit locations. Nearly 58% of the patients are males, with an average age of 41 years. PAHO said Peru typically averages about 20 GBS cases a month, but 96 cases were reported in June.Of the GBS patients, 23.0% initially presented with gastrointestinal symptoms, and 24.1% first had respiratory symptoms. And, of samples collected from patients, 11 were positive for Campylobacter jejuni.PAHO said Peru experienced an unprecedented GBS outbreak in 2019 that affected people in multiple parts of the country. The investigation found that it was associated with the Campylobacter jejuni ST2993 genotype.As part of the current health emergency, Peruvian officials have implemented a plan, including buying human immunoglobulin for treating GBS patients and stepping up surveillance and response actions. PAHO said it is supporting the country's health ministry in managing the event.
PAHO warns about infections linked to medical tourism -The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) last week called on member states to strengthen their capacity to detect, manage, and prevent outbreaks of antimicrobial-resistant organisms linked to medical tourism.The warning comes in the wake of a multinational fungal meningitis outbreak linked to two private cosmetic surgery clinics in Mexico.In an epidemiologic update, PAHO said that outbreak has affected 35 US residents who traveled to the clinics and had procedures under epidural anesthesia. Ten of the US patients have confirmed cases of fungal meningitis, and 8 have died, according to the latest update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Of the 547 people who underwent procedures at the two clinics from January through April of this year, 237 (43%) were US residents. PAHO estimates that the number of US residents who seek healthcare outside the country rose from 750,000 to 1.4 million a year from 2007 to 2017—a number that is expected to grow by 25% annually.The primary destinations for medical tourists are Mexico, Canada, and countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. Most of the procedures they seek are related to aesthetic and cosmetic surgery. Motivations include lower costs, the desire to avoid long waiting lists, or access to procedures that that aren't available in the country of residence."While most patients seek health care in the country in which they reside, there is an increasing proportion of people who travel for medical, dental or surgical care in a variety of ways," PAHO said. "This type of medical care can pose a risk to both public health and to the life of the person seeking this type of care." According to the report, the most common complications from medical tourism procedure are surgical wound infections and bacteremia, some of which are caused by antibiotic-resistant organisms. These infections are often related to suboptimal practices for preventing healthcare-associated infections (such inadequate sterilization of materials and reuse of syringes), the local epidemiology of antibiotic-resistant organisms, and inappropriate antibiotic use among prescribers and patients.In addition to the fungal meningitis outbreak, other outbreaks that have been reported among medical tourists in the region include a 2019 outbreak of surgical site infections caused by multidrug-resistantPseudomonas aeruginosa. That outbreak affected 38 US patients who had traveled to Tijuana for bariatric surgery.
Global groups warn of ongoing H5N1 avian flu threat to people | Three global health groups today warned that, with H5N1 avian flu outbreaks continuing to devastate animal populations and increasing detections in mammals, the virus could adapt to more easily infect humans.The joint statement came from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH). They urged countries to work together across sectors to protect both animals and people.The culprit is the H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, which began circulating in 2020 and has caused unprecedented deaths in wild birds and poultry, first in Africa, Asia, and Europe, then in North America and Central and South America. After 67 countries reported outbreaks in 2022, 14 more reported outbreaks this year, mainly in the Americas. Wild birds have been hit hard by mass deaths, and reports of deadly outbreaks in mammals are now on the rise. So far, 26 mammal species have been infected, and since 2022 WOAH has received reports of outbreaks in mammals from 10 countries across three continents, most recently in Polish cats. Gregorio Torres, DVM, who leads WOAH's science department, said, "There is a recent paradigm change in the ecology and epidemiology of avian influenza which has heightened global concern as the disease spread to new geographical regions and caused unusual wild bird die-offs, and alarming rise in mammalian cases."Human cases remain sporadic and linked to people who had close contact with infected birds and their environments. Of eight cases reported, some were severe or fatal.In today's joint statement, the groups also detailed the most current virus assessments. For example, a marker detected in the PB2 gene of H5N1 viruses from mammals are known to increase virus replication in mammalian cells. Though none of the changes seen show increased preference for binding to human-like receptors, some mutations have given the virus an increased ability to do so.
Latest CWD data from Wyoming show slow increase - Data on chronic wasting disease (CWD) sampling in Wyoming's large game animals for 2022 suggests a slow rise, with the disease spreading from east to west, according to an updatelast month from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department (WGF).Tests are done on submissions from hunters, road-killed animals, and animals found dead or in poor condition. Most samples are from hunter check-in stations. Of 6,701 samples from big game animals that were tested, 826 were positive for CWD, similar to 2020 and 2021..Jessica Jennings-Gaines, a WGF wildlife specialist, said comparing the numbers each year can be misleading, because the surveillance program focuses on different deer and elk herd unit each year."We can say that the prevalence of CWD is slowly increasing in many deer and elk herd units in the state," she said. "The western half of Wyoming has several deer hunt areas where CWD has not been detected; however, the disease continues to spread west and was detected in two new deer and five new elk hunt areas last year."
First-of-its-kind Ohio methane equipment would serve Indiana, too - The Toledo Blade — The two methane digesters proposed for Paulding County would be a first for Ohio.First, there’s the size: Each would process up to 500,000 gallons of manure a day, more than five times anything else in the state. Only four digesters are currently operating in Ohio, the largest of which processes 90,000 gallons a day.Digesters are designed to process manure 24 hours a day. Methane drawn out of the manure can be used to fuel vehicles or be injected into natural gas pipelines. The pair of applications under review, one at Paulding Dairy near Paulding, Ohio, and the other Van Erk Dairy near Haviland, Ohio, call for digesters that would take on manure generated at 20 livestock operations in Paulding, Defiance, Putnam, Henry, Van Wert, and Mercer counties in northwest Ohio, as well as Adams, Wells, and Huntington counties in northeast Indiana. Agriculture officials consider manure useful fertilizer, but environmental activists such as Lake Erie Waterkeeper founder Sandy Bihn consider it a waste product. Ms. Bihn recently told the Ohio Department of Agriculture in written comments that Indiana livestock facilities hoping to send manure over to Ohio for processing “should be investigated for compliance history prior to allowing out-of-state wastes to be brought into the Lake Erie watershed.”Pam Taylor, a retired teacher who tracks digesters for an activist group called Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan, claims the technology doesn’t work.“Only part of the methane in the livestock waste feedstock is recycled into renewable natural gas,” she said. “The gases that harm people and animals nearby, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia, as well as the rest of the methane” and [volatile organic compounds] “are flared off.” She said digesters “are not economically viable on their own without a host of subsidies, tax breaks, and legislative favoritism.”“They're simply yet another taxpayer-funded boondoggle to help polluters transfer the cost of treating their city-sized loads of livestock sewage to others,” Ms. Taylor said.But Sam Mullins, Ohio Department of Agriculture livestock environmental permitting division chief, said said the technology works, though he admitted there have been “growing pains” at facilities with improperly trained staff.“I know the technology works. But just like anything else, having qualified engineers and operators makes a difference,” Mr. Mullins said. “It all boils down to who’s operating them.”
PFAS study adds to evidence that chemicals are pervasive - A recent study estimating that toxic chemicals known as PFAS are in nearly half of U.S. drinking water adds to concerns about their commonality in American life. PFAS, which are known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are estimated to be in 45 percent of U.S. taps according to recent research from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).This comes on top of additional evidence that the chemicals are widespread, including research finding them in the blood of about 97 percent of Americans, as well as significant portions of U.S. waterways. Toxicologist Jamie DeWitt told The Hill that she is hardly shocked by the findings, which she described as a “verification” from a government agency “that PFAS are present in multiple drinking water supplies as well as in finished drinking water.”“Where scientists look for PFAS, they find them,” said DeWitt, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at East Carolina University. “If they can find them in polar bears and in the bottom of the ocean, then we shouldn’t be surprised that we find them across drinking water supplies.”While there are thousands of types of PFAS, the USGS study only looked for 32 types. Seventeen kinds of PFAS were observed at least once, while PFBS, PFHxS and PFOA were observed most often — in about 15 percent of the samples, according to the study. Scott Bartell, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of California, Irvine, said that people who have the chemicals in their water should be concerned about elevated risks of cancer and other illnesses. “We have good evidence that, for example, exposure to PFOA, which is one of the chemicals that was detected in many of the water supplies in the study, that it almost certainly causes kidney cancer,” he said. Carmen Messerlian, an assistant professor of environmental reproductive, perinatal and pediatric epidemiology at Harvard, said that it’s not one specific chemical that is the problem, it’s the PFAS family.“We know that the class of chemicals is carcinogenic, immunotoxic, reprotoxic, endocrine-disrupting,” she said. And despite the evidence of their prevalence, experts have also said they don’t think enough people know about the problem.
Asbestos in UK schools responsible for 10,000 deaths in four decades - As many as 10,000 UK school teachers, pupils and school staff have died of lung cancer caused by asbestos exposure in school buildings in the past 40 years, according to an investigation by the Sunday Times. Asbestos is a building material used as a fire retardant and heat insulator. It was widely employed during the postwar construction boom when many homes and schools were built in the UK. A 2019 Department for Education (DfE) survey of 20,000 schools in the UK estimated that about 81 percent of them contained asbestos. Despite its useful properties, asbestos poses significant health risks for humans, especially after prolonged exposure—though there is no “safe” level of asbestos exposure. When inhaled, asbestos fibers damage the lungs and can lead to scarring and inflammation and, in many cases, malignant mesothelioma, an aggressive tumor for which there is no effective treatment. While the time between exposure to asbestos and the emergence of actual illness can be quite long (up to 40 years), once someone is diagnosed with mesothelioma, the average life expectancy is about 12 months. Over 4,000 people in the UK are killed by the disease each year. The effects of asbestos have been known for a long time (the first documented death related to the substance was in 1906), but the material was only banned in the UK in 1999. Britain has the highest mesothelioma incidence in the world—more than twice that of France, Germany, or the United States. The type of asbestos most commonly used in UK schools—generally known as “white” asbestos—does not emit fibers unless it is disturbed. However, as more and more schools are falling into disrepair, the risk that parts of buildings containing asbestos will be damaged, either by roof collapse or renovation work, is growing. There is no register recording which schools contain asbestos and where in the building. Many teachers and children are daily exposed to asbestos when going to school, virtually guaranteeing that a significant number of them will contract mesothelioma later in life. This is doubly true for children, who are more vulnerable to lung cancer from asbestos than adults. Since the risk of mesothelioma accumulates over time, a five-year-old child who is exposed to asbestos is estimated to be, according to a 2013 DfE report, five times more likely to develop mesothelioma during their lifetime than an adult who is first exposed at the age of 30. Despite this, schools in the UK are not obligated to inform parents if the school contains asbestos—and in many cases will not even be aware themselves that their buildings are potential death traps. The Times recounted the case of PE Teacher Chris Willis, who was diagnosed with mesothelioma at 29 after being exposed to asbestos while attending the Kenton School in Newcastle as a child. “You don’t expect to go to school, get an education and come out with what I’ve got,” he said. He died last year, at the age of just 34.
Chemical irritant polluted air after Ohio train derailment: study -The air in East Palestine, Ohio, had high levels of a chemical irritant in the weeks following the February derailment of a train carrying hazardous chemicals, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon and Texas A&M universities drove through the town in a research van following the derailment, monitoring the air for unusual concentrations of compounds that were not present before the incident.Attention on potential hazards from the crash largely focused on vinyl chloride, a hazardous substance used in the production of plastics, which spilled in the derailment. But the team only detected vinyl chloride levels below what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) considers an unsafe long-term level.However, the researchers found atmospheric concentrations of acrolein were up to six times the normal level near the crash site on Feb. 20 and 21, nearly two weeks after officials cleared evacuees to safely return home. Acrolein, which was not among the chemicals spilled in the derailment, is an irritant to the eyes, skin and nose that has been linked to increased cancer risk.Researchers said that while the EPA has also been measuring acrolein levels in the atmosphere, the agency did not pick up the lower levels of the compound linked to long-term risk.The study’s authors wrote that the results indicate the need for ongoing mobile air quality monitoring at the site of disasters like the East Palestine crash, particularly during the ongoing cleanup process, which may unearth contaminants in the soil.“More broadly, this study illustrates that the ability of highly sensitive, nontargeted mobile monitoring to detect known and unknown [volatile organic compounds] can serve as a complement to the targeted and stationary monitoring typically deployed, facilitating characterization of the impacts of disasters on air quality and ultimately better protecting public health,” they wrote. In a statement to The Hill, an EPA spokesperson said that the agency “cannot speak to the data interpretation reported by Carnegie Mellon but welcomes their scientific review and interpretation.”
Kakhovka Dam Breach in Ukraine Caused Economic, Agricultural and Ecological Devastation That Will Last for Years - When an explosion breached the Kakhovka Dam in Ukraine on June 6, 2023, much analysis focused on near-term impacts, including the flooding of the city of Kherson, threats to the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and consequences for Ukrainian military forces’ expected spring offensive against Russian troops.But the most severe long-term effects will fall on Southeast Ukraine’s farmers.Villages there were flooded. Roads, train tracks and irrigation canals were washed away. Crops in fields and orchards in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia region were inundated, then left to shrivel after the water drained.The long-term ecological disaster will unfold over decades to come. Crimea, once a region known for its sunny beaches and rice fields, could dry up without irrigation.We are a U.S. political scientist with research expertise on the post-Soviet region and a Ukrainian economist who studies agriculture. While the long-term effects of the dam break are difficult to calculate, we believe that it will have a lasting impact on the climate of southern Ukraine.Farmland that is no longer irrigated and cultivated because canals are destroyed and the reservoir drained will dry up, becoming more vulnerable to soil erosion and dust storms. Agricultural production could be reduced for years to come, with impacts that ripple through supply chains and affect food security around the world.As we see it, the dam explosion has all the hallmarks of a scorched-earth strategy, intended to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. It is hard to imagine any country inflicting damage this sweeping on its own soil. Like other Soviet hydroelectric projects, the Kakhovka Dam and power plant were hailed as harbingers of progress and a bright socialist future when they were built in 1956 on the Dnieper River. The North Crimean and Dnieper-Kryvyi Rih canals, constructed in the 1960s and 1970s, transported water from the Kakhovka reservoir to Crimea in the south and the Kryvvi Rih iron ore basin and Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the north.Local villages and towns came to depend on water and electricity from the dam and its reservoir. Some 545,000 acres (220,000 hectares) of arable land in these two regions are irrigated, including over 20% of Kherson’s farmland. Kherson’s farms grow watermelons and tomatoes. The region’s cherry, apricot, peach, apple and plum orchards produce Ukraine’s sweetest fruits. Southeast Ukraine also grows vast quantities of soy and sunflower seeds, mostly destined for global markets.The dam breach inundated fields along the Dnieper’s banks. By July 1, the Dnieper River near the Kherson post had returned to its natural level, although a number of settlements in the territory temporarily occupied by Russian forces remained submerged.Based on conditions that have been reported so far, we expect that this year’s crops in the flooded zone will be waterlogged, and much of the harvest will be destroyed. Valuable perennial crops that relied on irrigation infrastructure fed by the reservoir will be flooded and then parched. Rich and productive topsoil may be washed away.Farther downstream, the lower Dnieper, Southern Bug and Inhulets river basins have been polluted, imperiling agriculture and drinking water for southern Ukraine. During the dam breach, 150 tons of oil leaked out, and at least 17 gas stations have been flooded. There is widespread concern about impacts on the region’s wildlife, including many types of nesting and migratory birds.Flooding from the reservoir also imperiled infrastructure that is critical for Ukraine’s agricultural exports, including irrigation canals, hydraulic pumping stations, river ports and grain terminals.Most importantly, without water from the reservoir, the fields of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea will dry out. Coastal towns on the Sea of Azov, most importantly Berdyansk, have lost their main source of drinking water.Crimea is particularly dependent on irrigation. Before Russia annexed it in 2014, Crimea’s farms planted rice and corn. After the annexation Ukraine blocked water from flowing to Crimea. When Russia captured Kherson in March 2022, it reopened the North Crimean Canal and allowed the peninsula’s reservoirs to fill.Without the Kakhovka Reservoir, however, Crimea is unlikely to receive irrigation water for at least a decade. Effectively, the peninsula will turn into a desert with a naval base. Beyond Ukraine, the dam breach will critically affect global food supplies. Southern Ukraine’s sunflower seeds, soy and cereals are major ingredients for industrially processed foods and livestock feed. They provide the proteins and lipids that are the building blocks of the 21st-century diet. Storage elevators and loading terminals at the port of Kozatske, located just downstream of the dam, were inundated within hours of the breach. The upstream ports of Kamianets-Dniprovska, Nikopol and Enerhodar are closed and likely will be inoperable for years to come. Global food commodity prices shot up hours after the dam broke, as global grain traders anticipated food commodity shortages. “That whole area going down towards the Black Sea and Crimea is a breadbasket not only for Ukraine but also for the world,” Griffiths told the BBC. “It is almost inevitable that we are going to see huge, huge problems in harvesting and sowing for the next harvest. And so what we are going to see is a huge impact on global food security.”
Ethanol spill into Dixon Ditch concerns neighbors; I-DEM overseeing cleanup | WSBT - The state of Indiana is now a part of the effort to clean up a spill from the South Bend Ethanol Plant. The spill leaked into the Dixon Ditch. (8 photos) WSBT 22 first brought you this story on Thursday night when we talked to neighbors of that ditch and their concerns about the murky water and nearby wildlife. On Friday WSBT dug deeper for answers into what happened and the potential impacts.A representative with Indiana Department of Environmental Management confirmed crews are on-site here overseeing the cleanup.But we're still waiting to get details on what happened.A release of ethanol into the Dixon Ditch, according to I-DEM, likely reached the headwaters of the Kankakee River.The state of Indiana is now a part of the effort to clean up a spill from the South Bend Ethanol Plant. A release of ethanol into the Dixon Ditch, according to I-DEM, likely reached the headwaters of the Kankakee River. (WSBT photo)It's a concern for Paul Wassenhove, who lives by that ditch and says the water is cloudy and claims it's killing wildlife.I-DEM told WSBT today there is no indication that water intakes or wells have been impactedAnd while some of the contaminated ditches cross farmlands, the farms don’t appear to obtain water from them.The state also says it's seen no impact to aquatic life or any obvious environmental impact.I-DEM says the plant has identified the problem but didn’t explain further.It’s still investigating how much ethanol was spilled. Saying in a statement to WSBT Friday in part, “Monitoring is taking place to get a better idea of the extent and impacts of the spill.” WSBT talked to Wassenhove Friday afternoon.. he says he’s seen some improvement to the water in his backyard on Friday.“At least you can actually see some weeds in there, whereas before you couldn’t see it’s just so cloudy,” WSBT talked to other neighbors on Friday who say their biggest inconvenience from the spill is the smell. Wassenhove says he's still upset about the entire situation. “I’m happy that it is actually it’ll come back in time. But you know, the damage is done,” said Wassenhove.WSBT also spoke with someone at the plant today who said the company, along with the city, would have an update on Friday.We have yet to receive that information. We're still waiting to find out what caused this leak.
EPA investigating after ethanol from South Bend plant spills into Dixon Ditch- All environmental eyes are on the Dixon Ditch in southwest St. Joseph County, where an ethanol spill was discovered last week. Indiana’s Department of Environmental Management says the spill came from the South Bend Ethanol Plant located at 3201 W. Calvert Street. Officials are still trying to figure out how much ethanol was involved and how much cleanup will be needed. The spill was discovered on the Fourth of July, but not by some plant warning system or environmental engineer. It was discovered by someone who was walking their dog near the ditch and warned those who farm there. “Next morning, I came out, went to the river, and it was black. And I mean black. Not gray, black,” said Brent Burkus with Martin Blad Farms. “We don’t know what happened or when it happened. This could have been discharging into this waterway for weeks, for months, we just don’t know,” added Chantelle Snyder with Arthur Snyder Farms Inc. The Ditch runs from the ethanol plant west to LaPorte County and the headwaters of the Kankakee River. State officials say no obvious environmental impact has been found. The ditch is used by farmers to irrigate crops, and some are getting anxious for answers. “It’s only by the grace of God that we had rain and didn’t need to pump,” Snyder said. “If we had still been in a drought situation, we could have unknowingly pumped, you know, polluted water onto our corn and it could have destroyed acres.” “At this juncture, we don’t know if we can pull water out of the river to water our corn,” Burkus added. “Fortunately, we’ve got good rainwater. But if it turns dry, that’s going to be a problem, so we need to understand what happened. Who made that decision and is it safe to use the water in the river.” Indiana’s Department of Environmental management believes that the spill likely reached the headwaters of the Kankakee River. Snyder fears any cleanup won’t go far enough, given that the main ditch feeds several privately owned tributaries that are used for irrigation. “There is some backflow from this ditch into my private ditches and that is a huge concern because they can agree to clean this up,” Snyder said. “But what about anything that might, that might have flowed into my ditches that impacted my private waterways, you know. Are they going to come out and test that? Are they going to clean that up? I think they should.” While state officials have found no obvious impact on aquatic life, farmers say water that is typically clear remains gray and murky.
Neighbors raise concerns about ethanol spill at St. Joe Co. commissioners meeting - Concerns about last week’s ethanol spill into the Dixon Ditch spilled over into Tuesday’s St. Joseph County commissioners meeting.The South Bend Ethanol Plant is responsible for the spill that was discovered around the Fourth of July. The ditch is used by farmers to irrigate their crops.“At this juncture, we are waiting for the ethanol plant to provide us with the soil samples, the samples they took on our farm last Wednesday,” said Brent Burkus with Martin Blad Farms. “We were told we’d have copies of that. That’s very important because we’ve got to send that data to Pioneer Seed company and our agronomist so we can determine if we can pull water out of the ditches to irrigate the crops.”The Indiana Department of Environmental Management believes the ethanol has likely reached the headwaters of the Kankakee River.Work on a cleanup plan continues.
South Bend ethanol spill appears to have reached Kankakee River, state agency says — A state agency is investigating how much ethanol was released into nearby waterways during a recent spill at a South Bend plant.The Indiana Department of Environmental Management said a spill last week at South Bend Ethanol appears large enough to have reached the Kankakee River by way of Dixon Ditch, a small waterway near the plant.Spillage has stopped, and IDEM is monitoring the cleanup at the facility on the city's southwest side, IDEM spokesman Barry Sneed said.The agency has yet to determine the amount of ethanol released. A plant manager declined to comment and directed The Tribune to IDEM. So far, "there is no indication that water intakes or wells have been impacted," Sneed said in a statement to The Tribune. Investigators haven't observed any obvious harm to wildlife, either, he said.Large spills can result in major fish kills and damage to aquatic life. When ethanol mixes with water, it sets off a reaction that removes the oxygen, suffocating fish.Some of the ditches that lead to the Kankakee cross farmland, Sneed said. But the farms don't appear to take water from them.Chantelle Snyder, president of Arthur Snyder Farms, where Dixon Ditch runs along her property, said it is a major concern that she didn’t learn about the spill until July 6 — from a fellow farmer. WNDU reported that it was first detected July 4 by someone who was walking her dog and who then contacted farmers.Snyder learned about it from a fellow farmer.She also questions whether the ethanol plant may lack a leak-detection alarm, based on what she said she’d heard about an open valve. Snyder said there needs to be an early warning plan for farms and neighbors along the waterways.“We need to know what was spilled into the ditches and for how long,” Snyder said, speaking at Tuesday’s St. Joseph County commissioners meeting.She’s grateful for recent and forecasted rains, which keep farmers from drawing potentially contaminated water from the ditches and spreading it on their fields.“There could have been hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage for the farms that take water from the ditch,” she said.Another farmer, Brent Burkus, owner of Martin Blad Farms, said he first saw the spill in the ditch, the color of coffee grounds, thinking that it was a sewage spill.He emphasized how this area — the fertile remnants of the former Grand Kankakee Marsh — has an “intense” and “delicate” network of waterways.He said there needs to be “enhanced filter strips” in the drainage areas. And he urged that landowners be “at the table” with IDEM, the ethanol plant and local government in the steps ahead.Commissioner Derek Dieter, who sits on the county drainage board, agreed and echoed a need for a system to alert landowners within reach of any potential spill.The Kankakee River begins southwest of South Bend and runs 133 miles through northern Indiana and Illinois, where it joins with the Illinois River.
Severe hailstorms ravage corn crops near Denver International Airport, Colorado - (video) On July 7, 2023, an unrelenting series of severe storms tore through areas north of Denver International Airport, leaving a grim scene of extensive agricultural damage. According to extreme meteorologist Reed Timmer, the relentless hail from the storms decimated corn crops as far as the eye can see.
USDA Forecasts Record Corn Production - USDA on Wednesday, July 12, lowered the corn yield estimate to 177.5 bushels per acre (bpa) after bumping up its acreage estimate, but the July World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) still forecasts a record corn crop at 15.32 billion bushels (bb).USDA lowered the soybean ending stocks forecast for the new-crop (2023-24) season to 300 million bushels (mb), above the range of pre-report expectations. The report accounted for the June 30 acreage estimate of 83.5 million planted acres but left yield unchanged at 52 bpa. USDA lowered export forecasts by 125 mb along with a small 10 mb reduction to crush.According to DTN Lead Analyst Todd Hultman, Wednesday's new-crop U.S. ending stocks estimates leaned bearish for corn, soybeans and wheat. Hultman sees the world ending stocks estimates from USDA as neutral for corn and soybeans, but bullish for wheat.You can also access the full reports here:
- -- Crop Production: https://www.nass.usda.gov/…
- -- World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE): http://www.usda.gov/…
As expected, USDA lowered its yield estimates 4 bpa -- though still higher than the pre-report average -- to 177.5 bpa. That follows the June planting report in which USDA raised corn planting 2 million acres to 94.1 million acres.Even with the lower yield, USDA increased its production forecast to a record 15.32 bb, up 55 mb from June. If realized, that would top the 2016 record for corn production.New crop ending stocks were pegged at 2.262 bb, up 5 mb from June's forecast.On the demand side, USDA largely held pat. USDA projects the 2023-24 Food, Seed and Industrial use at 6.735 bb. Ethanol use is forecast at 5.3 bb. Total domestic use is forecast at 12.385 bb. Exports for the new crop are pegged at 2.1 bb.The farmgate price for the 2023-24 crop is projected at $4.80 a bushel, the same as last month.
Flash flooding in Berks County as severe storms dump torrential rain -Tropical downpours were the order of the day in Berks County on Sunday as storms produced severe flash flooding around the region. Some spots were inundated, such as Reading Regional Airport, where 5.35 inches of rain had fallen by early evening. That breaks the old record of 5.32 inches set in 2004. Just to the west, a staggering 7.35 inches was recorded by a gauge at the Penn State Berks campus. Other parts of the county were not as waterlogged. A flood warning remains in effect for Berks County until 3:30 a.m. Monday, with flooding still occurring from runoff even after the rain has ended.At least one major waterway was reported to be above flood stage, according to the National Weather Service. As of 9:15 p.m., the Manatawny Creek at Spangville was at nearly 8 feet. Flood stage there is 6 feet.Earlier Sunday afternoon, the flash flooding led to numerous water rescues and road closures around the county. At one point, the Fleetwood Police Department in eastern Berks posted a message on Facebook warning residents to avoid all travel. “The flooding conditions are very dangerous everywhere right now,” according to the post. “Our emergency crews are out responding to rescues, flooded basements, and everything in between. We cannot stress this enough. Do not travel anywhere.” Video captured by a storm chaser showed a road in Fleetwood Park had been washed away, according to the weather service. The flooding shut down at least two major highways: Route 222 between routes 61 and 183, as well as the Warren Street Bypass (Route 12) between Fifth Street and Route 61. Many secondary roads were flooded, including the Reider Road Bridge in Oley. A photo showed the road had buckled due to the creek flooding underneath, according to the weather service. In the Blandon area, water had overrun Dries Road, where at least one vehicle was stuck. In Bern Township, video showed Fairview Drive overrun with water, according to the weather service. Earlier, street flooding was reported on Willow Street in Kutztown. In Reading, nearly 40 people in 24 units at the Jamestown Village Apartments on Lackawanna Street were believed to be displaced by flooding, according to the Pennsylvania Rivers Chapter of the American Red Cross. The Red Cross opened an emergency shelter for those residents.
Heavy storms cause chaos on the roads in upstate New York - At least one New Yorker was killed Sunday night when “tidal-wave”-like floodwaters swept her away in a devastating rainstorm that pummeled parts of the Hudson Valley and wreaked havoc on roads and homes across the region.Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for Orange and Ontario counties Sunday night, stating that the counties “experienced life-threatening flooding over the past few hours” — totaling about eight inches of rain by 10 p.m. A woman in her 30s drowned as she tried to flee her Highland Falls home in Orange County with her dog, County Executive Steve Neuhaus said Sunday night. “Her house was completely surrounded by water. The family tried to escape,” he said. “She was trying to get through [the floodwaters] with her dog and she was overwhelmed by tidal-wave-type waves.”The flash flooding dislodged boulders and smashed them into her house, damaging part of its wall, he said.Two other family members and the dog survived the harrowing ordeal, officials said, according to PIX 11.Rescue teams were trying to retrieve the woman’s body from the waters Sunday night. Several New Yorkers remained unaccounted for late into the night during the unrelenting storm. Hochul said on WCBS 880 there were more “missing individuals” in Orange County, without specifying a number. “The amount of water is extraordinary and it’s still a very dangerous situation,” she said, noting one house was swept away. New York State Police and other first responders brought multiple stranded motorists to safety Sunday night, a spokesperson said. Five swift-water rescue teams and a high-axle vehicle were deployed by the state to aid in rescues in high floodwaters. Authorities continued to do sweeps of the affected areas late into the night to make sure other drivers weren’t stuck in cars, police said. “We’re looking for people who may still be out there,” It’s unknown how many people have been rescued so far. State police urged drivers to avoid parts of the Palisades Interstate Parkway in Orange and Rockland counties because of the heavy flooding. The parkway was shuttered from Exit 14 to the Long Mountain traffic circle, along with many other major roads.
Extreme flooding overwhelms New York roadways and kills 1 person — Heavy rain spawned extreme flooding in New York’s Hudson Valley that killed at least one person, swamped roadways and forced road closures on Sunday night, as much of the rest of the Northeast U.S. braced Monday for potentially punishing rains. As the storm moved east, the National Weather Service extended flash flood warnings into Connecticut, including the cities of Stamford and Greenwich, before creeping into Massachusetts. Forecasters said some areas could get as much as 5 inches (12 centimeters) of rain. In New York's Hudson Valley, rescue teams found the body of a woman in her 30s who drowned after being swept away while trying to evacuate her home, Orange County Executive Steven Neuhaus told WABC-TV. Officials were waiting for the medical examiner's office to arrive, he said. “There’s a major flash flood. Major washouts were all around where her house is,” Neuhaus said. "So I could definitely see where she was trying to get out to to safety, but did not make it, got swept away.” The force of the flash flooding dislodged boulders, which rammed the woman’s house and damaged part of its wall, Neuhaus told The Associated Press. Two other people escaped. “Her house was completely surrounded by water,” he said. “She was trying to get through (the flooding) with her dog,” he added, “and she was overwhelmed by tidal-wave type waves.” The extent of the destruction from the slow moving storm, which pounded the area with up to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain, won’t be known until after sunrise, when residents and officials can begin surveying the damage. But officials said the storm had already wrought tens of millions of dollars in damage. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul confirmed to WCBS radio that several people were missing and one home was washed away. The rains have hit some parts of New York harder than others, but officials said communities to the east of the state should brace for torrential rains and possible flash flooding. Officials urged residents in the line of the storm to stay off the roads. “The amount of water is extraordinary and it’s still a very dangerous situation,” Hochul said. The governor declared a state of emergency Sunday for Orange County, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of New York City. She later extended the state of emergency to Ontario County in western New York, southeast of Rochester. The state deployed five swift-water rescue teams and a high-axle vehicle to help with rescues in flooded areas. Some video posted on social media showed the extent of flooding, with streams of brown-colored torrents rushing right next to homes, and roadways washed away by fast-moving cascading flows. West Point, home to the U.S. Military Academy, was severely flooded. Officials worry some historic buildings might have water damage. The National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings across parts of southeastern New York, describing it as “life threatening,” as well as warnings in northeastern New Jersey. By Monday, “a considerable flood threat with a high risk of excessive rainfall" was expected across much of New England, NWS said in a tweet. Intense rain may be especially strong in Vermont, where Gov. Phil Scott declared a state of emergency Sunday, and northeastern New York. Showers and thunderstorms in New York City could lead to flash flooding, the National Weather Service New York tweeted. State Route 9W was flooded, and the Palisades Interstate Parkway became so drenched that parts of it were closed, the New York State Police said in a statement. The police asked the public to avoid the parkway.
Northeast flooding: Trapped drivers swam out of their cars. A woman died after being swept away by floodwaters. What to know about the heavy rainfall hitting the Northeast - — Severe storms that left at least one dead in southeastern New York are dumping heavy rainfall at intense rates over parts of the Northeast, prompting road closures, water rescues and urgent warnings about life-threatening flash floods. Over 9 million people are under flood alerts across the Northeast on Monday, including parts of New York, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine – as well as across the country in Washington and Alaska. Flash flood emergencies and landslides are expected, with heavy rainfall continuing throughout the day. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency warning for central Vermont on Monday, where flooding is already underway and up to 6 inches of rain has fallen. Ten people were rescued from a campground in Andover amid severe flooding, said Jeannette Haight, the town clerk and treasurer. A bridge at the Horseshoe Acres Campground was washed out and campers were trapped. A call for help came in around 4 a.m. and rescuers were able to get the campers to safety, Haight told CNN. In Orange County, in southeastern New York, officials declared a state of emergency in the wake of severe flooding that resulted in the death of one woman who was swept away by floodwaters as she was trying to evacuate her home. “Last night was compete chaos,” county Executive Steve Neuhaus said on “Good Morning America” on Monday. Neuhaus said officials believe they’ve “got everybody accounted for,” but there is a possibility that people were swept away by flash floods. The area is still experiencing power outages. In Ontario County, in western New York, nearly 100 homes were impacted by the storm, with many residents displaced. Officials in the area have set up a temporary shelter. Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed state police and swift water rescue teams as the state braces for more road floods and washouts.Rainfall in West Point, New York, totaled more than 7.5 inches in six hours Sunday afternoon, according to preliminary data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That’s a 1-in-1000 year rainfall event for the area, according to a CNN analysis of NOAA’s historical rainfall frequency data.A once-in-a-millennium rainfall event is one that is so intense, the chances of it happening in any given year is just 0.1%.Reading, Pennsylvania, received 5.35 inches of rain Sunday, shattering its old daily rainfall record of 3.47 inches, set in 1952.Areas across New England could see 3 to 5 inches of rain Monday, which could bring rainfall totals for this storm up to 12 inches.
Live updates: 14 million under flash flood alerts in Northeast after heavy rain -As many as 14 million people in the Northeast and New England were still under flood alerts this morning after a summer's worth of rain fell in parts of New York, forecasters said.Close to 10 inches of rain fell yesterday in New York's Hudson Valley, radar showed — the amount that usually falls throughout the entire three months of summer.Burlington and Albany, New York, and Hartford, Connecticut, remained under flood alerts this morning.Warnings last night had applied to the boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.
- Nineteen people in Vermont have been rescued from cars, trees and homes as of 11 a.m., Gov. Phil Scott said during a news conference.
- West Point Military Academy recorded 6.96 inches of rain in 3 hours — a 1-in-1,000-year rain event for that location.
- Reading, Pennsylvania, had its wettest July day on record yesterday, with 5.35 inches of rain.
- A woman in her 30s was swept away by rapid waters in Orange County, 60 miles north of New York City, as she sought higher ground with her dog.
- In New England, rainfall rates may exceed 2 inches per hour.
Nineteen people in Vermont have been rescued from cars, trees and homes as of 11 a.m., Gov. Phil Scott said during a news conference.Fourteen swift rescue teams have been deployed, he said.The Red Cross said Monday that it has two shelters open — one in Highland Falls, New York and one in Reading, Pennsylvania. Widespread and life-threatening flash flooding is expected across Vermont today, as continuing rounds of heavy rain lash the state.Emergency managers said 10 families have already been evacuated from flooded homes in Londonderry, Andover and Ascutney, as reported by Vermont Public.About two dozen state roads were closed as of 10 a.m., according to Vermont State Police. Flash flood warnings were in effect from Massachusetts to the Canadian border.Flash flood warnings are in place in Newport, Richford, Enosburg Falls, Barre, Montpelier, Middlebury, Springfield, Windsor, Rutland, Chester, Woodstock, Essex Junction, Vergennes and Bristol, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington.
Catastrophic flooding paralyzes Northeast U.S., New York declares state of emergency - (videos)A slow-moving storm system dumped more than 250 mm (10 inches) of rain over the state of New York on July 9, 2023, causing catastrophic flooding. The deluge led to at least one confirmed death in Highlands, Orange County, and triggered a state of emergency in both Orange and Ontario counties. The Northeast United States, including New York, was left grappling with the aftermath of a severe storm that relentlessly pounded the region with torrential rain on July 9, 2023. One of the hardest-hit regions was Orange County in New York state’s Hudson Valley, where a woman in her mid-30s tragically lost her life. According to Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, the victim attempted to leave her house in Highlands with her dog when she was swept away. Officials confirmed the dog and the victim’s family survived the ordeal. The relentless rainfall wreaked havoc on the region’s infrastructure, trapping vehicles in rapidly rising floodwaters and rendering several roads impassable. Numerous bridges collapsed under the storm’s ferocity, including sections of the heavily traveled Palisades Interstate Parkway, according to Trooper Steven V. Nevel of the New York State Police. On the evening of the deluge, the National Weather Service reported a part of the U.S. Highway 6 near Fort Montgomery had collapsed west of the Palisades Interstate Parkway. The nearby town of Highland Falls became unreachable from Interstate 87 or Route 6 due to severe flooding, effectively cutting it off from surrounding areas. The floodwaters began to recede slightly by Monday morning, allowing emergency officials to set up a command post. Despite this, the New York State Department of Transportation urged people to stay off the roads as more closures were anticipated throughout the day due to persistent flooding. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency for Orange County on Sunday night. Shortly after, the declaration was expanded to include Ontario County due to significant flooding. Speaking at a press conference on Monday morning, Governor Hochul described the incident as a “one-in-1,000-years weather event” and cautioned that despite the rain subsiding, the crisis was far from over. The highest recorded rainfall on Sunday came from Putnam Valley, located 69 km (43 miles) north of New York City, with an astounding 266.7 mm (10.49 inches) of rain measured by 08:00 LT on Monday. During the same period, Mohegan Lake registered 228.3 mm (8.99 inches), Fort Montgomery 226.6 mm (8.92 inches), Crompond 214.4 mm (8.44 inches), West Point 206.2 mm (8.12 inches) and Mahopac 203.7 mm (8.02 inches). Further north, the impact of the torrential rainfall extended into Vermont where the rain transformed roads into raging rivers. The Vermont State Police reported at least two dozen road closures across the state due to flooding, leading the National Weather Service office in Burlington to issue a flash flood emergency in central Vermont on Monday morning. This is the first time the state has seen such an alert since its implementation in 2014. The low pressure system and anomalous atmospheric moisture content associated with the ongoing heavy rain event are forecast to slide northeastward tonight and eventually exit the region on Tuesday, July 11, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. Before then, however, additional slow-moving showers capable of containing intense rainfall rates are expected to dump a few additional inches of rainfall over parts of northern Vermont and far northeast New York. As a result, dangerous flooding in these areas are forecast to continue or worsen throughout the night, with impacts turning from flash flooding to main-stem river flooding.
Rescuers brace for more rain as relentless storms flood Northeast, Vermont hit hard (AP) — Swift water rescue teams and local officials across Vermont braced for more precipitation and flooding Tuesday after persistent heavy rains drenched the state and other parts of the Northeast, unleashing fast-moving waters that washed out roads, trapped residents in their homes and disrupted travel. One person was killed in New York as she tried to leave her inundated house. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths related to the flooding in Vermont, according to emergency officials. But dozens of roads were closed, including many along the spine of the Green Mountains. And the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings and advisories for much of the state from the Massachusetts line north to the Canadian border. The U.S Army Corps of Engineers said late Monday they expected two dams to release water overnight, causing “severe flooding” downstream likely to affect multiple towns. Rescue crews from North Carolina, Michigan and Connecticut were among those helping to get to Vermont towns on Monday that had been unreachable since torrents of rain began belting the state, according to Mike Cannon of Vermont Urban Search and Rescue. Swift water rescue teams in Vermont have done more than 50 rescues, mainly in the southern and central areas of the state, Vermont Emergency Management said Monday night. “We have not seen rainfall like this since Irene,” Vermont Gov. Phil said, referring to Tropical Storm Irene in August 2011. That storm killed six in the state, washed homes off their foundations and damaged or destroyed more than 200 bridges and 500 miles (805 kilometers) of highway. What’s different is that Irene lasted just about 24 hours, Scott said. “This is going on. We’re getting just as much rain, if not more. It’s going on for days. That’s my concern. It’s not just the initial damage. It’s the wave, the second wave, and the third wave,” he said.
Historic rainfall triggers worst Vermont flood in nearly a century, U.S. - (6 videos) A historic downpour on Monday, July 10, 2023, unleashed a torrent of over 228.6 mm (9 inches) of rain across Vermont, leading to devastating floods, the worst the region has experienced in almost a century. The capital city, Montpelier, found itself in a precarious position as the Wrightsville Dam teetered on the brink of its capacity, a scenario unseen since its construction. Vermont was caught in the grip of an extraordinary weather event this week, with a slow-moving storm system pouring more than 228.6 mm (9 inches) of rainfall on Monday, July 10, 2023. This deluge led to the most severe floods seen in the state in nearly 100 years. Roads and towns were submerged, prompting official warnings that the crisis could escalate before any sign of relief. Montpelier, Vermont’s state capital, was faced with an unprecedented situation as the Wrightsville Dam, a vital flood-protection infrastructure situated on the Winooski River, reached its maximum capacity by late Tuesday afternoon, as per city officials. William Fraser, City Manager, updated the city’s residents via a Facebook post, expressing concern about the potential damage if water exceeded the dam’s capacity and released into the North Branch River, a situation without a previous occurrence since the dam’s construction. By Wednesday, July 12, the city breathed a sigh of relief as officials confirmed that water levels in the Wrightsville Dam were beginning to recede. However, Montpelier Mayor Jack McCullough acknowledged the severity of the situation in an AccuWeather interview, comparing it to the historic flood of 1927. The city hall, police department, and fire department had all been evacuated, and the city’s administration was functioning out of an emergency operation center located at the city’s water plant, which was on higher ground. Moreover, by Tuesday morning, three vital radio towers used for dispatching fire and ambulance services were non-operational. President Joe Biden, during his visit to Vilnius, Lithuania, approved an emergency declaration for Vermont on Tuesday morning and authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency to manage disaster relief efforts. External help was also mobilized from states like New Hampshire, North Carolina, California, and Connecticut. The flooding was not confined to Montpelier alone. Vermont State Police reported the closure of at least two dozen roads across the state. The southern town of Weston, located approximately 111 km (69 miles) from Montpelier, found the floodwaters receding on Tuesday morning, revealing the aftermath of the storm. The deluge was reminiscent of Hurricane “Irene” in 2011, which brought more than 203.2 mm (8 inches) of rain over an 18-hour period, resulted in three fatalities, and inflicted over $700 million in damages, as reported by the National Weather Service (NWS). Rainfall records were shattered in the town of Calais, just 16 km (10 miles) north of Montpelier, with a total of 244.1 mm (9.61 inches) over a 48-hour period ending on Tuesday morning. Plymouth, Vermont, approximately 83 km (52 miles) south of Montpelier, measured 229.9 mm (9.05 inches) of rainfall. The same storm system also affected New York, where Putnam Valley in the Hudson Valley recorded the highest rainfall total of 266.4 mm (10.49 inches) during a 48-hour period ending on Tuesday morning. This excessive rainfall resulted in deadly flooding that destroyed several towns and claimed lives. Among the fatalities was Pamela Nugent, 43, who lost her life while trying to escape her flooded home in Fort Montgomery, New York.
Multiple tornadoes touch down in northeastern Illinois, disrupting air travel - (videos) On Wednesday, July 12, 2023, the greater Chicago area was hit by a series of tornadoes and thunderstorms, causing significant disruption to air travel and damaging homes in several counties. The severe weather forced the temporary halt of all air traffic at O’Hare and Midway airports and prompted the evacuation of their control towers. The National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed that at least eight tornadoes touched down in four counties in northeastern Illinois, including four in Cook County, which is home to Chicago. The most severe of these was described as a “large and extremely dangerous” tornado that touched down in Summit, Illinois, just 16 km (10 miles) southwest of downtown Chicago and moved toward the city. Around 30 minutes later, another tornado was confirmed near Chicago O’Hare International Airport, leading to the grounding of all departures of commercial flights into O’Hare and Midway airports and delays to outgoing flights. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reported that more than 300 flights in and out of O’Hare and another 32 in and out of Midway were canceled. Off-site air traffic controllers assumed control of the airspace as the on-site controllers needed to evacuate the towers at O’Hare and Midway. Normal operations resumed after the storms passed. In Elgin County, located about 54 km (34 miles) northwest of Chicago, at least 20 to 30 homes sustained significant damage from the tornadoes. Trees were uprooted and roofs blown off in the Cook County town of Countryside, and car windows were blown out in La Grange. A drone video from Chicago and Midwest Storm Chasers showed the trail of destruction a tornado left behind in Countryside, Illinois, which is a town located roughly 24 km (15 miles) southwest of Chicago. Homes were missing roofs and several trees had been knocked over. Tree and roof damage was also reported from several other twisters. One photo posted on social media showed a cinder block building collapsed in what appeared to be an industrial district of McCook, about 24 km (15 miles) southwest of Chicago.
New storm threat for Vermont in wake of severe historic floods, U.S. – videos - Just as Vermont starts to recover from its worst flooding in nearly a hundred years, the storm system that triggered tornadoes in Chicago on July 12, 2023, is moving eastward, threatening the region with another deluge. As the state’s residents and officials brace for the impending downpour, there are fears that the additional rainfall will exacerbate the already dire situation. A series of tornadoes and thunderstorms tore through the greater Chicago area on Wednesday, July 12, 2023, disrupting air travel, damaging homes, and uprooting trees across multiple counties. Of the eight confirmed tornadoes, the most severe impacted Summit, Illinois, a mere 16 km (10 miles) southwest of downtown Chicago, and threatened to move toward the city center. Air travel was particularly hard-hit by the storms, as turbulent weather conditions led to the grounding of all departures from Chicago O’Hare International Airport and Midway Airport. The Federal Aviation Administration reported over 300 canceled flights in and out of O’Hare and another 32 in and out of Midway, significantly disrupting the daily operations of these major transportation hubs. Residential areas were also devastated by the storms. In Elgin County, northwest of Chicago, between 20 and 30 homes sustained considerable damage. Similar scenes of destruction were evident in the Cook County town of Countryside, where roofs were blown off and trees uprooted, while the town of La Grange witnessed blown-out car windows. Now this same system is moving east, placing Vermont and neighboring states once again in the eye of an impending storm. The rainfall, which reached a record-breaking 228.6 mm (9 inches) on July 10, plunged Vermont into the most severe floods experienced in nearly a century. The torrents led to widespread inundation, submerging roads and towns and instigating an urgent state of emergency. Montpelier, Vermont’s capital, faced an especially critical situation with the city’s key flood-protection asset, the Wrightsville Dam, reaching its maximum capacity by Tuesday afternoon, July 11. The concern grew over the potential repercussions if the water exceeded the dam’s limit and flowed into the North Branch River. The severity of the situation was unprecedented, as such a scenario had not occurred since the dam’s construction. It wasn’t until Wednesday, July 12, however, that the city’s anxious population could breathe a sigh of relief. Officials confirmed that water levels at the Wrightsville Dam had started to recede, alleviating immediate fears of further damage. Yet, the challenges for Vermont are far from over. With the National Weather Service (NWS) forecasting another round of torrential rains for Thursday and Saturday, there is a call for continued vigilance.
Tornado hits Ottawa, damaging over 125 homes, Canada - A line of severe thunderstorms moved through eastern Ontario on Thursday, bringing heavy rain, strong winds, and at least one tornado. The tornado touched down in Barrhaven, south of Ottawa, and caused significant damage to homes and businesses. A survey team from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) is assessing the damage, and the agency has not yet released an official rating for the tornado. According to Ottawa Fire Services, the tornado left at least 125 homes damaged. In spite of the extensive damage, only one minor injury was reported. The damage incurred was varied, ranging from roofs and shingles being stripped off to broken windows, power outages and fallen trees, according to ECCC. Kim Ayotte, the General Manager of Emergency and Protective Services in Ottawa said city infrastructure was also affected, but the damage wasn’t substantial. During an interview, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe expressed his relief, acknowledging the potential severity of the situation had it escalated, “It could have been a lot worse.” The storms also caused flooding and power outages in other parts of eastern Ontario. In the Ottawa area, there were reports of downed trees and power lines, and some roads were closed due to flooding. The storms moved out of the area by Thursday evening, but the cleanup is still underway. ECCC is urging residents to stay safe and avoid areas that have been affected by the storms.
Landslide tears apart luxury homes on Southern California's Palos Verdes Peninsula (AP) — A landslide tore apart luxury homes on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula on Monday, leaving a confused jumble of collapsed roofs, shattered walls, tilted chimneys and decks dangling over an adjacent canyon. The slide in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates began Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground. Twelve homes were red-tagged as unsafe, and residents were given just 20 minutes to evacuate. The pace of destruction increased through the weekend and into Monday. “It is moving quickly,” said Janice Hahn, chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, who represents the area. “You can actually hear the snap, crackle and pop every minute when you’re there as each home is shifting, is moving.” It was initially believed that all of the red-tagged homes were sliding, but Assistant City Manager Alexa Davis clarified Monday afternoon that 10 were actively moving. An additional 16 were being monitored but had not required evacuation, Davis said in an email. The cause of the landslide was not known. But a fissure running among the homes raised suspicion that this past winter’s heavy rains may be involved, Hahn said. “We won’t know until a geologist and a soil expert really does a post-op on this and tells us what happened,” Hahn said. “But because of that fissure, the initial thinking is that it was because of the heavy rains that we had last year and all that underground water has caused this. But we don’t know.” Hahn said many of the displaced residents were unsure whether they were insured for such loss, including one who moved in two months ago after escrow closed. The county assessor was to meet with the residents to tell them they could apply for property tax waivers.
Torrential rain, floods kill 22 across northern India -Torrential rain across northern India has killed at least 22 people, as well as causing landslides and flash floods in the region, authorities and local media said on Monday. Schools in New Delhi were closed after heavy rains lashed the national capital over the weekend, and authorities in the Himalayan states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand asked people not to venture out of their homes unless necessary. At least 22 people died in floods and landslides in the northern states of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab on Sunday, the Times of India newspaper reported. In the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, flash floods over the weekend brought down a bridge and swept away several hutments. Authorities used helicopters to rescue people stranded on roads and bridges because of the rain, footage from Reuters partner ANI showed. Streets across the northern states, including in Punjab, Delhi and Uttarakhand were flooded. In some areas, rescue personnel used rubber rafts to rescue people stranded inside their homes, local media said. “Please stay inside your homes because more heavy rain is expected in the next 24 hours,” Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said in an appeal on social media late on Sunday. Many districts in Himachal Pradesh received a month’s rainfall in a day at the weekend, said a senior weather department official. Delhi, Punjab, and Himachal Pradesh have received 112%, 100% and 70% more rainfall than average so far in the current monsoon season that started on June 1, according to the department.
Over 100 lives claimed by record monsoon rains in northern India - (3 videos, including two+ hour compliation) In a week marked by record monsoon rains, northern India faced severe flooding that resulted in over 100 deaths, extensive property damage, and widespread disruption. The worst-hit region was the mountainous Himachal Pradesh state, where floodwaters claimed at least 88 lives and injured more than 100 people. The monsoon rains across the country have already resulted in about 2% more rainfall than normal. India Meteorological Department (IMD) forecasts more heavy rains in the northern regions in the coming days. Record-breaking monsoon rains led to massive waterlogging, road caves-in, and collapsed homes across large parts of northern India. Traffic was gridlocked, and educational institutions were forced to close their doors. In Himachal Pradesh, located approximately 500 km (310 miles) north of New Delhi, the deluge was particularly devastating. Cars, buses, bridges, and houses were swept away by the floodwaters. The state government reported that nearly 170 houses collapsed, and another 600 suffered partial damage due to the heavy rains and ensuing landslides. In Uttar Pradesh state, 12 people lost their lives to rain-related incidents since Wednesday, according to state government spokesman Shishir Singh. The fatalities included nine drownings, two lightning strike victims, and one individual killed by a snake bite. The Indian-controlled section of Kashmir reported four deaths, while New Delhi recorded one fatality. In the capital city, residential areas near the Jamuna River experienced significant flooding. Roads, cars, and homes were submerged, necessitating the evacuation of thousands from low-lying areas. The water level of the Jamuna River, flowing through New Delhi, reached a 40-year record of 207.71 m (681.5 feet) on Wednesday evening, July 12. This led to the displacement of nearly 30 000 people, who were moved to relief camps. Some schools were also converted into relief camps to accommodate those affected. Hundreds of individuals, along with their livestock, sought shelter under overhead road bridges in the eastern parts of the capital. Despite New Delhi experiencing less rainfall in the past two days, the river level rose due to an abnormally high water discharge from the Hathni Kund barrage in the neighboring Haryana state, as per Arvind Kejriwal, New Delhi’s top elected official. Rescue operations were launched in the Chandertal area in Himachal Pradesh, where nearly 300 people, mostly tourists, were stranded since Saturday, July 8 due to snowfall. Helicopters were deployed for the rescue mission, which included airlifting seven sick individuals on Tuesday. In Punjab, floodwaters entered the Nabha Thermal Power Plant near Rajpura in Patiala forcing the shutdown of one of its 700 MW units. The Army rescued 910 students and 50 others from the flooded Chitkara University near Rajpura, Punjab. The flood relief columns of its Western Command worked through the intervening night of Sunday and Monday to evacuate them and helped prevent the breaching of canals by the flood waters.
Extreme weather conditions trigger severe tomato crisis in India, prices soar by over 400% - Tomato prices in India have surged by over 400% due to a widespread shortage caused by severe weather conditions throughout this year’s tomato season. The steep increase, which occurred in recent weeks, has made this common ingredient in Indian cuisine largely unaffordable for many low-income households. The price increase, from 40 INR (0.54 USD / as of July 12) per kilogram to an excess of 160 INR (2.16 USD) per kilogram, is a harsh blow to households in major cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Traders warn that the price may climb even higher to 200 INR (2.7 USD) per kilogram in the coming days as more crops get spoiled due to recent heavy monsoon rains. Unusually high rainfall during this year’s tomato season has led to the devastation of crops and the spread of a lethal fungal disease. Although July is typically a costlier month for tomato purchases due to it falling between harvest seasons, consumers claim they’ve never witnessed prices this inflated. The crisis has had widespread effects, reaching even fast-food outlets such as McDonald’s. In their outlets across north, east, and south India, McDonald’s has stopped adding tomatoes to their burgers and other dishes due to the shortage. The seasonal crop issues arising out of farm fields in a few regions meant there were “not enough quantities meeting our quality specifications,” a McDonald’s spokesperson in north India confirmed. Several small-scale tomato farmers have described this season as one of the most devastating in terms of production and profit. Other essential crops, including onions, ginger, and chilies, are also facing escalating prices due to similar weather-related issues. It could take up to three months for supplies and prices to stabilize, according to traders. This will likely add to the growing discontent among consumers, who are already grappling with rising prices due to inflation and dissatisfaction with the government’s response.
More than 40 000 evacuated in China’s Sichuan province following severe flooding - (video) More than 40 000 people have been evacuated in China’s Sichuan province after heavy rains caused flooding and mudslides. The rains have also caused widespread damage to homes and infrastructure. Heavy bouts of rainfall have saturated several regions of China in recent weeks, resulting in disastrous floods and mudslides and the evacuation of over 40 000 residents in Sichuan province alone. State media reported that the severe rainfall led to the destruction of homes, infrastructure damage, and numerous fatalities. Yaan City in Sichuan recorded a rainfall of 300.7 mm (11.8 inches) within a 14-hour span, as reported by the state broadcaster CCTV. This sudden deluge triggered flash floods and mudslides, leading to extensive home destruction. Other areas that received very heavy rains include Guanyun County in Jiangsu province where 275.4 mm (10.8 inches) of rain were recorded overnight on Monday, July 10, Xiatai town in Guangdong Province where daily downpours at the end of June averaged 439 mm (17.3 inches) and Yuanling County in Hunan Province where 137.4 mm (5.4 inches) of rain were recorded in just one hour on June 30. A red alert, the highest in a four-tier warning system, was issued in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan Province, and several other regions that have experienced record rainfall. At least 12 people across the region have lost their lives over the past couple of weeks.
Turkey’s Black Sea region hit by deadly flash floods and over 1 000 landslides - Flash floods and landslides, triggered by heavy rainfall on July 9, 2023, have left at least one person dead and caused widespread destruction across various provinces in the Black Sea region of Turkey. The Black Sea region, particularly its central and western parts, experienced heavy rainfall on July 9, following an “orange alert” issued by the Turkish State Meteorological Service. The alert, which signifies a dangerous weather situation that could lead to damage and loss, was issued as more than 1 000 landslides occurred and streets and roads transformed into waterlogged areas. The hardest hit cities included Zonguldak and Bartın, where homes and businesses were inundated with water. With the alert continuing until July 10, authorities encouraged citizens to avoid high-risk areas, such as creek beds. The effects of the heavy rainfall were particularly severe in the Gökçedere neighborhood, 42 km (26 miles) from Samsun’s Çarşamba district. There, Abdal Creek overflowed, and Türkan Yılmaz, a disabled woman who had ventured outside to gather firewood, was swept away by the torrential waters. Search operations for Yılmaz were fraught with difficulty due to the conditions, but her body was eventually located approximately 6 km (3.7 miles) from where she disappeared. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya visited the severely impacted Bartın on July 10. He stated that the country’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) carried out search and rescue operations in the flood-affected regions. The operations included the deployment of helicopters and diver rescuers. In addition, AFAD evacuated numerous citizens from their flooded residences and workplaces. Yerlikaya remarked on the extreme levels of rainfall, noting a 24-hour total of 200 mm (7.9 inches) in Bartın province. In response to the devastation, he announced an allocation of 30 million Turkish Liras ($1.2 million) to the flood-stricken province of Bartın. A similar scene played out in Düzce, which recorded 223 mm (8.8 inches) of rainfall, leading the Melen River to overflow and trap a family inside their vehicle in a flooded underpass. Rescue teams safely evacuated the family. Road closures also heavily impacted the western parts of the Black Sea region due to the floods. The Bolu Tunnel, a vital point of intercity road transportation, was closed to traffic in the Ankara-Istanbul direction as a result of a landslide. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, after visiting the Bolu Mountain Tunnel Control Center and speaking with Bolu Governor Erkan Kılıç and other officials, stated that 14 of the closed roads have been reopened, with work continuing on the remaining seven routes.
Severe floods hit Russia’s Black Sea coast, causing massive damage and leaving 4 missing, Russia - The city of Sochi in southern Russia was hit by a devastating flash flood due to torrential rainfall on Saturday, July 9, 2023, leading to the displacement of residents and massive disruptions. Approximately 200 homes were flooded and around 240 people were evacuated from the affected areas. The floods in the region continued through Wednesday, July 12, when local authorities reported 4 people went missing. In response to severe weather conditions in Sochi, located in the Krasnodar Krai region of southern Russia, a rapid downpour led to the flooding of approximately 200 homes on the evening of July 9, 2023. With the overflowing rivers caused by the heavy rainfall, the rising waters posed a significant threat to residents and their properties, causing substantial disruptions to the city’s infrastructure. Around 240 people from the flooded areas of Sirius and Khostinsky in the Adlersky City District were evacuated, with temporary accommodations provided for the displaced individuals. The Ministry of Emergency Situations (EMERCOM) deployed a team of over 150 personnel, who worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of the affected residents. Specialized equipment, including five boats and pumping systems, were brought into action to facilitate the removal of water from the inundated buildings. Reports from EMERCOM stated that 50 mm (2 inches) of rainfall fell within an hour on July 9, contributing to the severity of the flash floods. Social media platforms showcased the power of these floods, with videos depicting the torrents surging through narrow roads and overturning vehicles. In addition, beachgoers witnessed dolphins being washed up by strong winds and waves. On Monday, July 10, the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s Krasnodar region branch issued another warning for heavy rains, thunderstorms and tornadoes throughout the day. The floods in the region continued through Wednesday, July 12, when local authorities reported 4 people are missing.
Rare snowfall blankets Johannesburg for the first time in over a decade, South Africa - — South Africa’s most populous city, experienced its first snowfall in over a decade this week, transforming the city into a winter wonderland and sparking excitement among its residents. The snowfall, confirmed by South Africa’s Weather Service on Monday, July 10, 2023, was not only limited to Johannesburg but also reported over the Eastern Cape. While parts of South Africa are accustomed to snow during its winter months from June to August, the occurrence of snow in Johannesburg is a rarity. The city last witnessed snowfall in 2012 and prior to that in 2007, according to Jennifer Fitchett, a professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. The unusual weather event occurs approximately once every 10 years, Fitchett said. “We’re not an area that has a lot of snowfall and that’s partly because in winter we have dry conditions. We’ve got a strong, high pressure cell, which is why we don’t have any or very little rain in winter months,” she added. However, the conditions on Monday were conducive to snow across many parts of the city. johannesburg south africa july 10 2023 nasa terra modis bg Image credit: NASA Terra/MODIS, The Watchers. Acquired on July 10, 2023
Texas Power Use Breaks Record for Second Day in Heat Wave(Reuters) -Demand for power in Texas hit a record high for a second day in a row on Thursday as homes and business kept air conditioners cranked up during a lingering heat wave. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the grid for more than 26 million customers representing about 90% of the state's power load, has said it has enough resources available to meet soaring demand. Texas residents have worried about extreme weather since a deadly storm in February 2021 left millions without power, water and heat for days as ERCOT scrambled to prevent a grid collapse after the closure of an unusually large amount of generation. After setting 11 peak demand records last summer, ERCOT said usage hit a preliminary 81,406 megawatts (MW) on Thursday, topping the record hit one day earlier, of 81,351 MW. Thursday's high was the grid's third all-time high this summer - June 27 was the first. ERCOT expects usage will set another record on Friday. One megawatt can power around 1,000 U.S. homes on a typical day, but only about 200 homes on a hot summer day in Texas. Meteorologists at AccuWeather forecast high temperatures in Houston, the biggest city in Texas, would hit 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 Celsius) almost every day from July 13-19. That compares with a normal high of 94 F for this time of year. With the heat building, next-day or spot prices at the ERCOT North Hub, which includes Dallas, jumped to a three-week high of $123 per megawatt hour for Thursday from $39 for Wednesday. That compares with an average of $34 so far this year, $78 in 2022 and a five-year (2018-2022) average of $66.
Texas governor signs bill rescinding water breaks as deadly heat grips state | Amid a dangerous heatwave that has brought blistering temperatures acrossTexas, the state’s governor signed a law this week eliminating local rules requiring water breaks for workers.The measure, which will take effect later this year, will nullify ordinances enacted by Austin and Dallas that mandate 10-minute breaks for construction workers every four hours. It also prevents any other local governments from passing similar worker protections.Just days after Greg Abbott, the governor, ratified the law, officials said a 35-year-old utility lineman working to restore power in Marshall, Texas, died after experiencing symptoms of heat illness. The heat index – which takes into account both the temperature and humidity – was 100F (37C) while he was working.It was an omen of what could come after HB 2127 takes effect in September, wrote the Texas branch of the AFL-CIO union, referring to the far-reaching law that not only curbs cities’ right to enact worker protections, but a number of labor, agriculture, natural resources and finance measures. “Banning required rest breaks for construction workers in the Texas heat is deadly.”The law’s passage has enraged workers’ advocates, who warn that it will result in even more heat-related deaths and illnesses in a state that already tallies the highest number of worker deaths due to high temperatures.“In the midst of a record-setting heatwave, I could not think of a worse time for this governor or any elected official who has any, any kind of compassion, to do this,” said David Cruz, the communications director for League of United Latin American Citizens National (Lulac), a Latino civil rights group. “This administration is incrementally trying to move us backwards into a dark time in this nation. When plantation owners and agrarian mentalities prevailed.”Six out of every 10 construction workers in Texas are Latino, and labor advocates say that the law will hurt Latino and Black communities that are already disproportionately affected by extreme heat. Hispanic workers made up a third of all worker heat deaths since 2010, according to an NPR/Columbia study.Local protections are crucial, advocates say, because the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Osha) does not have a national heat protection standard.Still, the Republican lawmakers pushing the new law have said it eliminates a “hodgepodge of onerous and burdensome regulations” that Texas businesses face. The effort aims to prevent cities and counties from enacting progressive policies that counter the state Republican supermajority’s aims.
Texas heatwave blamed for 13 deaths as scorching temperatures and smoke spread across US – as it happened -Here’s a recap of today’s developments:
- Huge swaths of the US continue to face extreme weather as temperatures persist into the triple digits in the south and south-west while smoke pollution is blighting the midwest.
- At least 13 people have died in Texas due to heat-related illnesses, according to officials. Eleven of the Texas heat-related deaths occurred in Webbcounty, which includes Laredo.
- More than 120 million people in the US are under air quality alerts, according to analysis by CNN. The latest figure accounts for the addition of the New York City and Philadelphia areas.
- Pennsylvania’s department of environmental protection has declared a “code red” air quality alert for the entire state due to smoke from Canadian wildfires.
- For a second day in a row, Chicago and Detroit have some of the worst air quality in the world. The smoke from Canadian wildfires is exacerbating air quality issues for poor and minority communities, who are more likely to live near polluting plants and have higher rates of asthma.
- Record-setting heat in Texas has sent hundreds of people to emergency rooms in recent weeks, according to state health officials.
- This year’s wildfire season is the worst on record in Canada, with some 76,000 sq km (29,000 sq miles) burning across eastern and western Canada. With much of Canada still experiencing unusually warm and dry conditions, “there’s still no end in sight”, Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington said.
KXAN Weather: Record-warm Gulf of Mexico partially responsible for Texas heat wave — Central Texas is baking in its second-hottest July on record, due in part to persistent southeast winds blowing over record warm Gulf of Mexico waters. Overnight low temperatures in Austin have been record warm four out of the last five mornings as of Friday, and we are expecting another record warm morning on Saturday. Southeast winds originating over the 86°+ Gulf of Mexico strip heat and moisture from the water and bring more humidity into the area, keeping overnight lows anomalously warm. The higher moisture levels also worsen “feels like” temperatures. Austin set an unofficial all-time heat index record of 118° on Jun. 21. Dr. Huai-min Zhang, oceanographer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, joined KXAN Chief Meteorologist David Yeomans to discuss the oceanic heatwave. “Over the whole global ocean average, sea surface temperatures have broken records starting in mid-March of this year,” Zhang said. Ocean water stores thousands of times more heat than air stores due to its heavier weight and higher specific heat value, according to Zhang. “Therefore, a little change in the ocean can cause a big change in the air and the weather patterns,” Zhang said. According to NOAA, the warming in the Gulf of Mexico this year has not been as extreme as warming elsewhere in global oceans, but has been record warm starting in March. Global oceans have warmed steadily since the 1970s, according to NOAA. As we transition out of a three-year La Niña into a rapidly-intensifying El Niño pattern, parts of the ocean such as the eastern Pacific are gaining tremendous amounts of heat rapidly. “I would expect [the ocean water] will continue to be hotter than normal for the rest of the summer and fall,” Zhang said. “My worst worry, a worst case scenario, is that hurricanes will form in the eastern tropical Atlantic, march westward and along the way intensify with such warm water, and make landfall as super hurricanes along the coastal regions.”
Across the US Southwest, residents in desert cities like Phoenix are experiencing extreme heat wave— Even Southwestern desert residents accustomed to scorching summers are feeling the grip of an extreme heat wave smacking Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Southern California this week with 100-degree-plus temps and excessive heat warnings. To add insult to injury, the region has been left high and dry with no monsoon activity, which can help offset the blazing temperatures. In Arizona, the monsoon season officially begins June 15 and can bring powerful storms with high winds, lightning and heavy bursts of rain. The heat has made parts of Phoenix feel like a ghost town. Sunset concerts were canceled, and covered restaurant patios equipped with cooling misters sit empty. On Monday, Martin Brown and his black Labrador, Sammy, escaped the heat in Phoenix by going to the lobby of Circle the City, an air-conditioned walk-in health clinic for homeless people that is also a designated hydration station. Anyone can come in to sit, to get bottled water, and to find snacks like a burrito or ramen.In recent years, Phoenix has taken various actions to limit risks for heat-related illness. When the National Weather Service issues an excessive heat warning, three of the city's most popular hiking trails close from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.In 2016, officials voted to ban hiking with dogs on trails when the temperature exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius). City park rangers oversee enforcement and citations for violations, said Adam Waltz, a city spokesperson.On Tuesday, Phoenix was poised to hit a 12th consecutive day of 110 degrees F (43 degrees C) or higher, according to the National Weather Service. The longest recorded stretch so far was 18 days in 1974.The high pressure needed to generate monsoon storms just isn't in the right position, according to state climatologist Dr. Erinanne Saffell, so metro Phoenix is left with below-normal precipitation levels and dry conditions that facilitate hotter temperatures. Also, some experts believe this year's heavier snowpack in the West took more energy to melt, prolonging the progression of a high-pressure system this summer.Stepping outside is like walking into a giant hair dryer. Accidentally brushing metal and other surfaces can feel like touching a hot stove.All the concrete and pavement in sprawling Phoenix contributes to the misery, as sidewalks and buildings bake all day and release accumulated heat slowly overnight. During the current wave, the temp isn't dipping below 90 degrees F (32.2 C). This cycle makes Phoenix an urban heat island.“Phoenix in the early 1900s would average about five days a year where they had 110 degrees or higher. Now you count the last 10 years, it's about 27 days a year. That's five times more,” Saffell said.
Hot temperatures have led to 8 deaths, 10 burn hospitalizations. Officials say reporting lags, numbers will soar— It’s nothing new that summers are hot in Arizona, but this July can be one of the hottest and deadliest in years.Temperatures have been at or above 110 degrees for 11 straight days now, inching the record set back in 1974 with 18 straight days topping more than 110 degrees.The hot weather has been driven in part by a relentless heat wave that’s been striking the southwest of the country and impacting millions of people, causing a rise in heat-related illnesses and death.This heat season there have been a total of eight confirmed heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, but officials tell 12News reporting lags and expect the numbers to soar.“The emergency department has been busier than usual with heat-related illness,” said Frank LoVecchio, an emergency physician at Valleywise Health Medical Center.Dr. LoVecchio said while first responders have been able to reach many people suffering from heat-related illnesses, hospitals are getting the patients who are most severe.“What we see a couple of times a day unfortunately is somebody who is comatose, with high temperatures,” Dr. LoVecchio said. “Usually, the thermometer only reads about 107, so it’s not uncommon to see 2 to 3 people with 107 temperatures. Your body does not like those temperatures.”Heat-related deaths have soared in recent years. Last summer a record-breaking 425 people died as a result of hot temperatures, a number that has quadrupled in just a decade and that increased by 21% from 2021, which had 229 heat-related deaths.In 2022, more than half of all heat-associated deaths occurred during the month of July, according to a county report.“What we have started to see this year, is that our numbers are tracking what we saw last year,” said Dr. Nick Staab, the assistant medical director at the Maricopa County Department of Public Health, when asked about the current heat wave.Dr. Staab said since 2013, the county has tripled the number of cooling and hydrating stations, in an effort to prevent heat-related illnesses or death.“We really want people to plan for the heat so that they can get to a place to cool down,” Dr. Staab said, speaking about the general public, not just those who are unsheltered. “It’s important that they stay hydrated, but also that they can get indoors during the hottest part of the day.”The dangerous heat has already sent at least 10 people to the Arizona Burn Center after sustaining burns after coming into contact with hot surfaces, such as pavement.“Your body was not built to have these temperatures outside,” Dr. LoVecchio said. “When you get these temperatures, your body will stop reacting.”
Phoenix heat records as we head toward 16 days in a row of 110+ — The heat has been relentless so far this month in Phoenix. Every afternoon in July has brought temperatures of 110 degrees or higher. Even our overnight lows are creeping up, staying in the 90s each night. But heat isn't anything new in the Valley of the Sun. Here are the records and stats for extreme heat in Phoenix: Top 5 hottest days in Phoenix
- 1. 122 degrees on June 26, 1990
- 2. 121 degrees on July 28, 1995
- 3. 120 degrees on June 25, 1990
- 4. 119 degrees on June 20 2017 and June 29, 2013
110-degree days
- Earliest: May 8, 1989
- Latest: 1911 had no 110-degree days
- Average number of 110 degrees or greater days per year: 21
- Greatest number of 110 degrees or greater days: 53 days in 2020
- Longest stretch of 110 degrees or greater days 18 days, June 12-29, 1974
Excessive heat warning in effect in the Big Country as temperatures soar, Burn bans issued in multiple counties -As we approach the hottest days of the week, the National Weather Service (NWS) upgraded the entire area from a heat advisory to an Excessive Heat Warning until 9:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 12. Temperatures are already well into the triple digits as of 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Here in the Key City, it was around 102°, 103-104° down in the Heartland area around and Sweetwater was scorching at 105° on July 11. With triple digits and drier conditions expected to continue into next week, more counties have issued a burn ban. There are now 12 counties in the Big Country with a burn ban. That includes Scurry, Mitchell, Nolan, Coke, Runnels, Brown, Comanche, Mills, Eastland, Shackelford, Throckmorton and Stephens counties. When drought conditions exist, burn bans can be put in place by the county judge or county commissioner’s court to prohibit or restrict outdoor burning for public safety. Officials ask residents to avoid burning anything outdoors, check trailers to make sure chains are secure to avoid sparks on the roads, and, most importantly, stay safe. According to Texas A&M Forest Service, out of the 254 counties in the Lone Star State, 78 are under burn bans, roughly 30% of the state. With little change in the extended forecast, that number is expected to rise. Though the overall pattern is unfavorable, a weak cold front is expected to sag into the Big Country this weekend and stall. This will bring some small relief to the area. Are extreme temperatures enhancing the severe storms across the Big Country? ‘Cooler’ temperatures are expected into the mid to upper 90’s on Sunday, July 16, behind the front. Temperatures will remain in the triple digits ahead of the front. A slight chance for a few showers and storms is possible for northern portions of the Big Country Saturday night. Temperatures are expected to increase again early next week as the upper-level high-pressure system expands eastward with time.
Excessive Heat Warning in Bay Area this weekend with dangerous temps inland - ABC7 San Francisco - Dangerous heat will be coming to parts of the Bay Area this weekend as many cities inland will exceed 100 degrees with excessive heat lasting several days. The immediate coast will stay relatively comfortable in the 60s-70s. An Excessive Heat Warning will be in effect Saturday and Sunday for areas inland, before a widespread cool-down arrives Monday. Even though there are no watches or warnings for Friday, temperatures will feel noticeably warmer. We still expect our hottest cities to be well into the 90s if not 100 degrees on Friday afternoon. The National Weather Service is estimating about 3.5 million folks in the Bay Area will be under the Excessive Heat Warning. They say to never leave children and pets in vehicles, and stay hydrated. Daytime relative humidity will be in the low teens inland, creating elevated fire danger. ABC7 Meteorologist Drew Tuma says across California, only the immediate coastline will be spared from the dangerous heat. Most of the state will have Excessive Heat Warnings and Heat Advisories, and the hottest places like Death Valley could even reach 130 degrees.
California officials warn residents to plan ahead of intense heat wave - -- A dome of heat is forming over California and the expected high temperatures pose danger to those who don't pay attention to the heat warnings. Ashley Williams with the state's new Heat Ready program said, "California's drier and hotter future is here right now." The governor's office Tuesday launched a new Heat Ready California campaign aimed at getting vulnerable populations to cool places in heat waves with information in 30 languages. The state is increasing coordination among state agencies and local partners starting Tuesday. "Stay cool, look for air-conditioned places which can include cooling centers - it could also include shopping centers, places that are air conditioned," Williams said. Plan in advance where to go and when to not venture out. Two years ago on July 10, 37-year-old Philip Kreycik went for a run on a trail in Pleasanton Ridge Regional Park on a 106 degree day. GPS showed he wandered off the trail disoriented and likely suffered heat stroke. His body was found by volunteers on Aug. 5, 2021. Livermore temperatures are expected to be up in the 105 degree range again this week. You should only hit a hiking trail with a buddy in a heat wave. Deciding what time to go out is also critical. Dave Mason with the East Bay Regional Parls District said, "Plan ahead with plenty of water and if they're going to do strenuous activity, limit it to cooler parts of the day, in the morning around 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and the evening." And one bottle of water is not enough. A full liter of water an hour (32 oz) is needed to stay hydrated if you're out in extreme heat.
Sweltering weather has left swaths of the US baking. A ‘heat tsar’ could help, experts say -Record-breaking temperatures. Millions under heat alerts. Hikers dying on hot trails.As large swaths of the US bake under sweltering heat, some advocates and officials say the Biden administration should consider appointing a “heat tsar” to manage a response.The Earth saw its two hottest days in recorded history this week as parts of the south-west roasted, and as a stretch of the south endured a brutal heat dome that was parked over Texas for weeks.Heat kills more Americans than any other form of extreme weather. The threat is increasing amid the climate crisis and will accelerate, especially if the world doesn’t urgently stop burning fossil fuels.In response, Phoenix, Arizona; Los Angeles, California; and Miami-Dade county, Florida have all appointed chief heat officers – or “heat tsars” – over the past three years, as have at least six global cities.“It’s been very valuable for us in the city to have a permanent office dedicated to heat,” Kate Gallego, the mayor of Phoenix, whose administration created the nation’s first-ever office of heat response and mitigation in 2021, helmed by chief heat officer David Hondula. “Before, it wasn’t always clear who was in charge.”Rising temperatures have been brutal in Phoenix, the hottest city in America. Last year, Maricopa county reported 425 heat-associated deaths, a 25% increase from the previous year. It’s a trend affecting regions across the US, leaving governments scrambling to prepare. A federal body could help them share best practices, said Gallego.“We have probably 30 ideas about how to respond to heat,” she said. “If New Orleans already knows 25 of them but they benefit from five new ones, that could be incredible. It’s the same for mayors in Texas, who have lost too many lives already.”
Air quality alerts return to millions in US ahead of smoke impacts from Canadian wildfires- Smoke from wildfires burning in western Canada is making a return to the U.S., with air quality alerts issued for communities in the Upper Midwest to start the weekend. Hundreds of wildfires continue to burn north of the U.S.-Canada border, but the positions of weather systems over the next few days will help usher in a new round of smoke that could impact Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota and reach as far south as Nebraska and Iowa. Air Quality Alerts remain in effect until Saturday evening for all of Minnesota and neighboring Wisconsin. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said it expects the Air Quality Index to reach at least a value of 100, which will make the air unhealthy later on Friday and into Saturday. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued a statewide air quality advisory on Friday that remains in effect until noon on Sunday. The AQI is expected to range from Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups to scattered areas reaching Unhealthy levels. The AQI ranges from 0 to 500, with smaller values indicating cleaner air and any reading above 300 being hazardous. The agency warns people with asthma, heart disease, and the young and old might experience sensitivities with the latest bout of smoke. Forecast models show smoke thickening through Friday over the Plains and Upper Midwest following the passage of a cold front, before pushing off to the east and possibly impacting the air quality around the Great Lakes on Saturday and Sunday.
Canada wildfire smoke drifts into US and triggers new air quality alerts -A recent outbreak of wildfires in western Canada is again sending a plume of unhealthy smoke into the United States.The smoke is already wafting into the Northern Plains and will spread into the Upper Midwest, including Minnesota, Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and Indiana, where air quality advisories that warn of “unhealthy” levels of smoke are in place through the weekend.The smoke could also cause issues in Iowa and Illinois, including Chicago, which experienced some of the worst air quality in the world amid heavy smoke in late-June.This time, the smoke plume is not coming from the Canadian province of Quebec. It is instead funneling across Canada from much further away in the West, so it shouldn’t reach the Northeast like it did in early June, when New York City’s skies turned an apocalyptic shade of orange.On Friday, the encroaching smoke dropped air quality in parts of Montana and North Dakota to code red, or unhealthy levels on the Air Quality Index, and to code orange, or unhealthy for sensitive groups, in Minnesota, according to airnow.gov..Wildfire smoke contains tiny pollutants known as particle matter, or PM 2.5, that can get into the lungs and bloodstream once inhaled. These pollutants most commonly cause difficulty breathing and eye and throat irritation, but have also been linked to more serious long-term health issues like lung cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The plume was birthed from nearly 400 fires sparked in Canada’s province of British Columbia in the past week, nearly half of which were started by 51,000 lightning strikes from thunderstorms, the BC Wildfire Service said. Some of those thunderstorms were “dry” or produced inconsequential amounts of rain to help squelch any fires, a dangerous prospect in a province experiencing the worst level of drought.Parts of the US will be at risk of smoke for the foreseeable future depending on weather patterns and fire flareups because Canada is experiencing its worst fire season on record. More than 23 million acres have burned so far this year, an area roughly the size of Indiana.British Columbia has had more than 1,000 fires start since April. Those fires have already burned through nearly three times the amount of land compared to an average year in British Columbia over the last 10 years, the BC Wildfire Service said.One firefighter died Thursday responding to one of the blazes near Revelstoke, British Columbia, a press release from the firefighter’s union said. The BC Wildfire Service confirmed the death to CNN. The firefighter has not been identified.
Canadian wildfire smoke is pouring into the United States again - The Washington Post - After a short reprieve from wildfire smoke in much of the Lower 48 states, the next outburst from Canada will pour into the Upper Midwest into the weekend, compromising air quality. Thick smoke from the fires is degrading air quality in multiple Canadian provinces. And a cold front is pushing it southward past the international border and into the Northern Plains and Great Lakes region. All of Minnesota and Wisconsin are under air quality alerts Friday and into the weekend. Although no alerts are in effect over the Dakotas and Montana, the air quality has begun to deteriorate there as well. Cities at risk of smoke pollution through Saturday include Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Fargo, N.D., and perhaps Chicago. The source of the smoke is major blazes that are scorching British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories, amid Canada’s worst wildfire season on record. A trailing cold front from a storm system moving through central Canada is the primary mechanism dragging smoke southward into the United States. Weather patterns signal the likelihood of more smoke spilling into the Lower 48 through the weekend and probably beyond. Smoke is arriving in the Lower 48 states On Friday morning, heavy plumes of smoke were drifting into the northern tier of the United States. Code Red to Code Purple air quality levels, signaling unhealthy amounts of smoke pollution, had arrived in North Dakota and parts of Montana. The bad air is progressing southeastward with time, toward the Midwest and Great Lakes. North of the border, some of the worst air quality could be found in Alberta and British Columbia, as well as areas east of James Bay in Quebec. Calgary and Edmonton were both reporting Code Red or worse quality and restricted visibility.
Most of western ND has "unhealthy" air quality due to Canadian wildfire smoke— The same winds that helped push cloudy skies and rain out of western North Dakota have also blown in more smoke from the ongoing Canadian wildfires, raising the air quality levels to the “unhealthy” stage. Right now, the EPA sensors scattered around North Dakota are showing high levels of particulates in the air which, going by official AirNow fire and smoke website reports, puts the air people are breathing outside into the “unhealthy” category. KX Weather Cams in Bismarck and Minot show the hazy skies blanketing the cities, as well as other communities throughout western North Dakota. People who have breathing issues are advised to limit their outdoor activities and exposure. The KX Weather Team notes gusty winds up to 30 miles per hour will help push out the smoke starting Saturday, meaning some relief should be coming by Sunday.
Florida in hot water as ocean temperatures rise along with the humidity (AP) — Record global ocean heating has invaded Florida with a vengeance. Water temperatures in the mid-90s (mid-30s Celsius) are threatening delicate coral reefs, depriving swimmers of cooling dips and adding a bit more ick to the Sunshine State’s already oppressive summer weather. Forecasters are warning of temperatures that with humidity will feel like 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius) by week’s end. If that’s not enough, Florida is about to get a dose of dust from Africa’s Saharan desert that’s likely to hurt air quality. The globe is coming off a week of heat not seen in modern measurements, the World Meteorological Organization said Monday, using data from Japan’s weather agency to confirm unofficial records reported nearly daily last week by the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer. Japan reported the global average temperature on Friday was half a degree (0.3 degrees Celsius) warmer than its past record hottest day in August 2016.Global sea surface temperatures have been record high since April and the North Atlantic has been off-the-charts hot since mid-March, meteorologists report as climate change is linked to more extremeand deadly events.“We are in uncharted territory and we can expect more records to fall,” said WMO director of climate services Christopher Hewitt. “This is worrying news for the planet.”Water temperature near Johnson Key came close to 97 degrees (36.1 degrees Celsius) Monday evening, according to a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration buoy. Another buoy had a reading close to 95 (35 Celsius) near Vaca Key a day earlier. These are about 5 degrees warmer than normal this time of year, meteorologists said.
Farmers to end home, auto coverage in Florida, pull back in California over natural disaster costs - Farmers Insurance will end its home, auto and umbrella coverage in Florida and curtail coverage offerings in California due to ongoing risks from environmental disaster, the insurer announced Tuesday.In a statement shared with The Hill, Farmers confirmed it will discontinue those forms of coverage in the Sunshine State, saying “this business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure.” The insurer will also curtail new homeowners’ insurance policies in California, due to “record-breaking inflation, severe weather events, and reconstruction costs,” Farmers said.A spokesperson for Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) told The Hill that it is reviewing the notice, but added that it was marked as trade secret, restricting how much the office can discuss it. In the meantime, the spokesperson pointed to a state law that requires all insurers to give the OIR 90 days’ notice before discontinuing lines of insurance in Florida. Customers are entitled to 120 days’ notice. Florida is at particular risk due to the hurricanes and tropical storms that have historically battered its coasts, while California has its own unique risks in the form of its wildfire season. The announcement comes the month after Farmers announced it would not write new property policies in Florida due to rising catastrophe costs, while State Farm, California’s largest homeowners insurer, announced in May that it would halt new policies in the state due to catastrophe exposure. AIG, meanwhile, announced earlier it would end new policies for homeowners along Florida’s coastline. In its announcement Tuesday, Florida projected that about 30 percent of overall policyholders in the state would be affected. Florida, in addition to its exposure to environmental risk, also has particularly high insurance rates due to a combination of fraud and lawsuits. A state law enacted at the beginning of this year creates a new property insurance backstop in the state, but it’s unclear yet how much of the problem this will offset.
Last week the hottest in recorded world history, U.N. agency says - Last week was the hottest ever recorded across the world — and an oncoming El Niño is likely to keep upward pressure on global temperatures, the World Meteorological Organization said Monday. Global average surface temperatures were not the only records broken last week, the United Nations’ weather and climate agency said, citing preliminary data. It noted sea surface temperatures also hit “unprecedented” highs and that Antarctic sea ice coverage is at a record low. The WMO said climate change and the developing El Niño are expected to push land and ocean temperatures higher. But that El Niño system has yet to take full effect, meaning temperature records are likely to be reached again later this year. “The scientific community is struggling to a certain extent to keep up,” Michael Sparrow, head of the WMO’s world climate research department, said in a press call. “It’s very concerning.” Mean temperatures reached as high as 17.24 degrees Celsius (63.03 degrees Fahrenheit) globally on Friday, according to the Japanese government’s JRA-3Q dataset, the WMO said. The U.N. agency said that finding backed up observations from the European Union’s Copernicus ECMWF ERA5 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Those early results point to the first week of July being the hottest since modern instruments began measuring global temperatures. It follows record high temperatures in June, which were 0.5 degrees C above the 1991 through 2020 average. The high ocean temperatures in the North Atlantic are “unprecedented and of great concern” given the region’s role in driving extreme weather events, Sparrow said in a statement. A warmer Atlantic could contribute to more hurricanes and tropical cyclones, as well as heavier rains and drought in West Africa, he said. The hotter temperatures in the North Atlantic, however, are not likely due to El Niño. The oceans absorb more than 90 percent heat from human-produced greenhouse gases that drive climate change, Sparrow noted.
Mud volcano erupts Taiwan’s Pingtung County, inundating farmland - (video) A mud volcano erupted in Taiwan’s Pingtung County on July 11, 2023, ejecting steam and mud from several vents up to 2 m (6.5 feet) in the air. The eruption lasted about 4 hours, inundating nearby farmland and making a mess near a local temple. This is the second eruption of this mud volcano in 2023. Although no one was hurt, local residents say the cleanup will be pricey.
Significant explosion at Shishaldin volcano, Alaska - satellite video - A significant explosion occurred at Shishaldin Volcano in Alaska, U.S. at 09:09 UTC on July 14, 2023. The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange. The explosion produced an ash cloud that initially reached 9 to 12 km (30 000 to 40 000 feet) above sea level and drifted south over the Pacific Ocean. A second smaller explosion occurred at 15:10 UTC and reached approximately 4.5 km (15 000 feet) above sea level. The National Weather Service issued a SIGMET for these events and suggested a maximum cloud height of 7.6 km (25 000 feet) above sea level for the drifting ash cloud. Web camera images and pilot reports show continued low-level ash emissions, including a small ash cloud near the summit around 18:30 UTC. On July 13, 2023, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) raised the Aviation Color Code to Orange and the Alert Level to Watch in response to increased activity at Shishaldin Volcano. The public is advised to stay away from the volcano and to be aware of the potential for ashfall in the area. Ashfall can cause respiratory problems and can damage vehicles and equipment. Eruptions from Shishaldin have produced minor and on occasion significant ash clouds in the past. These can occur with little warning.
Volcanic eruption starts just northwest of Litli Hrutur, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland - -video - After 6 days of intense seismicity between Fagradalsfjall and Keilir, Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, a new volcanic eruption started just northwest of Litli Hrutur at around 16:40 UTC on July 10, 2023. The announcement has been made by the Icelandic Met Office (IMO). “From first estimates, there is a 200 m (656 feet) long fissure oriented approximately northeast-southwest on the eastern and northeastern slopes of Litli Hrútur from which lava is emerging as a series of fountains,” IMO said. As of 18:30 UTC, the eruption was occurring in a small depression and lava was flowing to the south, while gas and steam emissions were drifting to the northwest. The eruption is in an uninhabited region, so there are no immediate risks to communities or infrastructure. With the development of the eruption presently unclear, IMO is advising the public not to attempt to visit the eruption area as dangerously high levels of volcanic gases will accumulate close to the eruption site. During the prelude to the eruption, IMO scientists became aware of increasing levels of tremor at a seismic station at Fagradalsfjall. Episodes of heightened tremor occurred on 8 and 9 July, and again today in the hours before the eruption broke the surface. Similar periods of tremor were noted just ahead of similar eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula in 2021 and 2022.
High-level eruption at Bagana volcano, ash plume to 16.4 km (54 000 feet) a.s.l., P.N.G. - A high-level explosive eruption took place at Bagana volcano, Papua New Guinea at around 21:30 UTC on July 14, 2023, sending a discrete plume of ash and gas to 16.4 km (54 000 feet) above sea level. The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange. According to the Darwin VAAC, it was a discrete volcanic ash eruption, with ash moving north of the volcano. The height was determined by the temperature of the cloud of approximately -80 °C (-112 °F). Ground reports indicate pyroclastic flow was produced during the eruption.1 The ash cloud dissipated by 10:50 UTC. This event was very similar to the one on July 7 when heavy ash fell on a nearby region and continued through July 9. Read more about it below multimedia files.
Tourists received no safety warnings before New Zealand volcano eruption killed 22, prosecutor says --Tourists received no health and safety warnings before they landed on New Zealand’s most active volcano ahead of a 2019 eruption that killed 22 people, a prosecutor said Tuesday.There were 47 people on White Island, the tip of an undersea volcano also known by its Indigenous Maori name, Whakaari, when superheated gases erupted on Dec. 9. Most of the 25 people who survived were severely burned.The island’s owners, brothers Andrew, James and Peter Buttle; their company Whakaari Management Ltd.; and tour operators I.D. Tours NZ Ltd. and Tauranga Tourism Services Ltd. went on trial Tuesday in Auckland District Court for allegedly failing to adequately protect tourists and staff.Prosecutor Kristy McDonald said in opening the prosecution case that the eruption at the popular tourist destination was not predictable but was foreseeable. The 20 tourists and two tour guides who died were given no warning of the risks, she said. “They were not given the opportunity to make any informed decision about whether they wanted to take the risk of walking into the crater of an active and unpredictable volcano that had erupted as recently as 2016,” McDonald said. “The business of tourism on Whakaari was a risky business. It involved tours to an active volcano, taking people to the heart of the crater in circumstances where no one could predict when an eruption might occur, and if an eruption did occur, those on Whakaari were likely to die or suffer very serious injury. And tragically, that risk was realized,” she said. Of those killed, 14 were Australians, five were Americans, two were New Zealanders and one was German. McDonald said the company that owned the volcano — Whakaari Management Ltd., which she called WML — failed to understand the risk, failed to consult with tour operators on the hazards, failed to ensure appropriate personal protective equipment was provided to tourists and staff, and failed to provide an adequate means of evacuation.
Humans' impact on the earth began a new epoch in the 1950s called the Anthropocene, scientists say -From climate change to species loss and pollution, humans have etched their impact on the Earth with such strength and permanence since the middle of the 20th century that a special team of scientists says a new geologic epoch began then. Called the Anthropocene — and derived from the Greek terms for “human” and “new” — this epoch started sometime between 1950 and 1954, according to the scientists. While there is evidence worldwide that captures the impact of burning fossil fuels, detonating nuclear weapons and dumping fertilizers and plastics on land and in waterways, the scientists are proposing a small but deep lake outside of Toronto, Canada — Crawford Lake — to place a historic marker. “It’s quite clear that the scale of change has intensified unbelievably and that has to be human impact,” said University of Leicester geologist Colin Waters, who chaired the Anthropocene Working Group. This puts the power of humans in a somewhat similar class with the meteorite that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago, killing off dinosaurs and starting the Cenozoic Era, or what is conversationally known as the age of mammals. But not quite. While that meteorite started a whole new era, the working group is proposing that humans only started a new epoch, which is a much smaller geologic time period. The group aims to determine a specific start date of the Anthropocene by measuring plutonium levels at the bottom of Crawford Lake. The idea of the Anthropocene was proposed at a science conference more than 20 years ago by the late Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen. Teams of scientists have debated the issue since then and finally set up the working group to study whether it was needed and, if so, when the epoch would start and where it would be commemorated. Crawford Lake, which is 79 feet (29 meters) deep and 25,800 square feet (24,000 square meters) wide, was chosen over 11 other sites because the annual effects of human activity on the earth’s soil, atmosphere and biology are so clearly preserved in its layers of sediment. That includes everything from nuclear fallout to species-threatening pollution to steadily rising temperatures. There are distinct and multiple signals starting around 1950 in Crawford Lake showing that “the effects of humans overwhelm the Earth system,” The Anthropocene shows the power — and hubris — of humankind, several scientists said.
Climate change: Our infrastructure is built for another Earth -- We humans now face an era of climate that is uncharted for the size and complexity of the human community. Our roads, rails, ports, buildings, electric grid, water systems and food systems are not designed for this new climate. For example, we continue to build infrastructure based on data for rainfall that does not reflect the dramatic changes that are taking place in rainfall patterns and amounts. In fact, practically all the standards for building our infrastructure to withstand rain, snow, wind, flood and heat are out of date. In addition, termites that weren't a huge problem for buildings in some climates are now causing greater damage as more destructive species spread to new areas. Our maladapted infrastructure problem is becoming even more obvious now as a combination of climate change and the warm phase of the periodic fluctuation of warm and cool waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean known as the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is bringing record worldwide temperatures. A temperature higher on average across the globe than any previously recorded since instrument readings began in the 1850s was measured on July 3. That record was broken again on July 4, and then again on July 5. Even during the cool phase of ENSO known as La Niña in 2020 the world recorded an average temperature that was "effectively tied" with the warmest year ever in 2016. This is part of what scientists mean when they say we humans are in uncharted territory regarding climate. In fact, it is likely that Earth's average temperature is now higher than at any time in the last 125,000 years based on tree ring and ice core data. Modern humans, homo sapiens, arose about 300,000 years ago. However, early humans were, of course, not reliant on a complex energy and resource infrastructure that includes global trade flows. And, their numbers were exceedingly small compared to ours: Estimates run between 10,000 and 30,000. Even if we decided to make dramatic reductions immediately in our burning of fossil fuels, our destruction of forests, and our emissions of other greenhouse gases such as methane, we could still expect new temperature records for the next 25 to 50 years. That's because much of the excess heat the Earth has absorbed has been stored in the oceans and will only be released to the atmosphere slowly over that time. And, of course, even with our most earnest efforts, it would take decades to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions to a level that would no longer raise global temperatures. So, that would further lengthen a timeline filled with new temperature records. Those who have called for a focus on adaptation to climate change—either because they don't believe climate change is human-caused or because they now see the futility of getting humans to address the causes of climate change—will have their hands full in the decades ahead. They will be working in a new environment in which the Earth breaks records not just for temperature but for other measures such as rainfall and drought in various locations depending on how climate change is affecting those locations. And, they will also have to contend with heavy impacts on food crops and the spread of tropical disease-carrying insects into areas in which they were previously rare or unknown.
The wood industry releases more carbon than Russia — and we’re not counting its emissions: study --The wood products industry is massively undercounting its impact on the climate, a new study has found.Through its production of paper, pulp, pellets and lumber, the industry releases at least 3.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year, according to a study published last week in Nature.That is a large number in its own right: more than three times the annual emissions from aviation and nearly twice the carbon burned off by fossil fuel-dependent Russia.But it is particularly dramatic when compared to the carbon cost claimed by the wood products industry itself — which is often calculated to be less than zero.“For the most part, people treat wood harvests as though they’re not causing emissions,” said study coauthor Timothy Searchinger, who splits his time between Princeton and the World Resources Institute.The findings in Nature, however, show that wood harvests exert “a really, really big carbon cost,” he said.“And we’re not paying attention to it,” he added.On the surface, the idea that wood harvests release carbon dioxide is intuitive, Searchinger said. Wood is mostly made of carbon, and every aspect of the process of harvesting it, whether for pulp, housing or furniture, dumps carbon into the atmosphere.The biggest portion of wood’s carbon emissions comes from simply burning it. About half of the volume of wood that enters saw, pellet and paper mills — like bark and small branches — is stripped off and burned up to power the factories.Much of what remains is sold as firewood — to be burned in homes — or wood pellets, which largely go to power plants.While this energy is renewable — the wood can grow back — it isn’t carbon-free, unlike potential replacements like solar or wind power, Searchinger noted. And yet for decades, the industry has operated under the assumption that wood harvests offer only benefits in the fight to slow climate change.The reason: It assumes any trees that are chopped down to create wood products will be replaced by the new trees that grow in their place, replacing the carbon that was lost in the products’ creation. And all of that carbon in those trees came from the atmosphere, whereas all of the carbon released by Russia had been sequestered in their geology for millennia.
How the Western drought has increased carbon emissions At the turn of the 20th century, as the United States developed the West, the federal government built hundreds of hydroelectric dams on major rivers in the region. These dams destroyed river ecosystems and flooded Indigenous land, but they also provided a cheap and abundant source of renewable energy for tens of millions of people. Hydropower today meets around a quarter of the region’s energy needs. But the hydroelectric fleet in the West has taken a beating over the past 20 years as a series of devastating droughts have battered the area. When major rivers dry up, less water flows through hydroelectric dam turbines — and dams produce less electricityas a result. At the same time, the heat waves that often accompany dry periods lead to more demand for power as people crank up their air-conditioning. That’s bad news for grid operators, who have to find an alternate source of electricity just as dams are falling short.This decline in hydropower leads to a significant surge in fossil fuel emissions, according to a new study published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a leading scientific journal. After looking at power generation across the West between 2001 and 2021, the authors of the study found that coal and gas plants ramped up their activity during dry months to replace lost hydropower, leading to more carbon emissions and more local air pollution. While that finding was expected, the scale of the increase in fossil fuel emissions surprised the researchers. “The effect on the power mix is actually pretty large,” All in all, the decline in hydropower caused an extra 121 million metric tons of carbon emissions between 2001 and 2021 — about the same as if an additional 1.3 million cars had been on the road during the same period. The size of the change varied from grid to grid and from power plant to power plant, but it was considerable everywhere. Fossil fuel emissions rose by 11 percent in the Northwest during the driest months, and by a whopping 30 percent in California. At some plants, generation jumped as much as 65 percent above normal levels during dry spells.
USA Has Raised CCS Development Grants to $777MM Since 2021 -- The USA Department of Energy (DOE) announced Monday over $23 million in funding for technology transfer and knowledge sharing to advance the deployment of carbon, capture and storage (CCS) solutions, raising total grants to nearly $800 million since 2021. The funding, called the Regional Initiative to Accelerate Carbon Management Deployment, aims to help ensure the country maintains “secure, affordable, and environmentally sound fossil energy supplies”, according to the DOE. It was launched 2019 under the department’s Fossil Energy and Carbon Management Office (FECM). “With the selections announced today, FECM has invested over $777 million in more than 100 projects since January 2021 that advance research, development, and deployment of carbon capture, transport, and storage approaches”, the DOE said in a press release. “This progress is essential to help drive economic development, technological innovation, and high-wage jobs as we build a clean energy and industrial economy.” In the latest rollout 16 projects across 14 states have been selected for a total of $23.4 million “to provide locally-tailored technical assistance and enhanced stakeholder engagement around carbon management technologies”. The projects concern technical assistance, public engagement and geological research, and focus on communities affected by carbon management projects. Carbon Solutions LLC has received $2.5 million to help with planning for Project WyoTCH, a CCS facility in Wyoming with a capacity of up to 25 million tons of carbon dioxide a year. The funding is specifically for the design of a roadmap that would “allow stakeholders to visualize and analyze hundreds to thousands of carbon management infrastructure scenarios, identifying key thresholds for policies, investments, and risk to determine how this information can be used to develop a robust business case”, the DOE said. Another $2.5 million has gone to the University of North Dakota to help it “provide technical assistance and engagement to a prospective large-scale carbon management storage hub, with strong emphasis on public engagement activities, environmental justice analysis, and social science research that will support a better understanding of the social landscape of the region in which the hub would be developed”. The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology has been allotted the second-biggest share with just less than $2.5 million to fasttrack the launch of a carbon management hub in the Four Corners region by getting the support of locals through engagement. The Battelle Memorial Institute has also been earmarked around $2.5 million for the establishment of “a foundation for a carbon management hub along the Mid-Atlantic Outer Continental Shelf from northern Virginia to Massachusetts to help meet regional decarbonization goals set by states, communities and industry”. The University of Texas has bagged nearly $2.49 million for the formation of “a stakeholder community that will provide accurate and reliable information about carbon management as an emissions mitigation option for the hundreds of industrial and power sector CO2 emissions sources”. The Oklahoma State University has won close to $1.36 million for pre-construction and public engagement works for a project to build carbon management infrastructure in the Anadarko basin. Alaska’s Department of Natural Resources has been allocated $1 million “to assess and provide pertinent data via the Alaska Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Database to an emerging carbon management industry with the goal of accelerating the development and implementation of CO2 storage within the Cook Inlet Region of Alaska”. Among geological work-related projects, Indiana University has also received $1 million as the biggest recipient in this area of concern. The funding is for a project “to identify favorable areas in Indiana that can support commercial-scale carbon management hubs to accelerate the adoption of the technology, focusing on multiple saline reservoirs of Cambrian and Ordovician age at ideal depths for sequestering carbon”. The other recipients for projects related to geological research are the University of Oklahoma ($999,994), the University of Illinois ($999,985), the University of Wyoming ($998,968), Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources ($998,015), the Geological Survey of Alabama ($958,735), the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ($906,965), the Utah Geological Survey ($892,683) and Western Michigan University ($862,117).
EPA says carbon capture is within reach. Utilities aren't biting. The utilities that control most of the country’s power plants aren’t rushing out to install carbon capture, even as the Biden administration offers the technology as a lifeline for fossil fuels. The administration has boosted tax credits for companies that store carbon dioxide, launched large-scale pilot programs and proposed pollution standards that would allow utilities to avoid closing some fossil fuel plants if they employ carbon capture. All are aimed at promoting carbon capture and storage — or CCS — as part of the transition to a zero-carbon grid. But those efforts haven’t yet spurred utilities to take the leap on installing the technology, which is more costly for the power sector than it is for other industries like ethanol. E&E News contacted the 10 companies that control the largest coal and gas fleets in the U.S. to ask about their CCS plans. While a few pointed to active research projects, most said they do not have near-term plans for deployment on the timeline laid out in EPA’s draft rule to limit carbon pollution from power plants. With a mandate to keep the lights on and keep rates as low as possible, “this is an industry that is not generally incentivized to work with emerging technologies,” said Emily Sanford Fisher of the Edison Electric Institute, which represents U.S. investor-owned electric utility companies. “Our regulatory structure does not love the risk involved in new technology.”
Unusual alliances emerge amid opposition to eminent domain for carbon pipelines - Opponents of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipeline projects in South Dakota have forged a unique coalition. It includes Republicans, Democrats, climate change deniers who see the pipelines as a boondoggle, and environmentalists skeptical of the pipelines’ benefits. Many of them agree on one contention: that unlike water and natural gas pipelines, electrical transmission lines and other projects that have used a legal process called eminent domain to gain access to land, a liquified carbon dioxide pipeline would not deliver a product needed by the general public. Therefore, opponents say, carbon pipeline projects should not be allowed to use eminent domain to access land against a landowner’s will. “It hasn’t mattered to me, in this fight, who is a Democrat, who is a Republican,” said state Rep. Karla Lems, a Republican from rural Canton who owns land that would be crossed by pipelines. “I want to know if you are for the United States of America and the rights written in our Constitution.”Two pipelines that would pass through eastern South Dakota – which both have permit hearings scheduled later this summer – would create the largest carbon dioxide pipeline networks in the United States. They would gather carbon dioxide emitted from about 60 ethanol plants and biorefineries in the Midwest and transport it for underground storage in North Dakota and Illinois. The combined length of the pipelines would be around 4,000 miles.The intention behind the projects is to combat climate change, and the projects are eligible for billions of dollars in federal incentives created for that purpose. Additional support stems from the pipelines’ potential to help sustain and grow the ethanol industry.Opponents of the projects staged a rally Thursday in the state Capitol in Pierre, where the political diversity of the coalition was on display.
Biden and King Charles III zero in on generational challenge of climate change (AP) — President Joe Biden and King Charles III, two leaders who waited decades to reach the pinnacle of their careers, used their first meeting in those roles Monday to zero in on the generational challenge of climate change, prodding private companies to do more to bolster clean energy in developing countries.The meticulously choreographed gathering at Windsor Castle injected substance into the type of encounter between president and monarch that historically has been more about ceremony. After the arrival formalities, Biden and Charles participated in a climate-focused roundtable with officials from the financial and philanthropic sectors. John Kerry, the U.S. envoy on climate, also attended.The 74-year-old Charles, who was crowned in May, has long fought to protect wildlife and battle climate change. Biden, for his part, identified climate change as one of the four crises he was determined to confront as president. He signed a sweeping legislative package last year that includes nearly $375 billion in climate-related incentives.Biden, 80, last had formal talks with Charles, then prince, at the COP26 U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021. The U.S. president also attended the state funeral of Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, in September as well as a reception for heads of state at Buckingham Palace the night before the service. Biden did not attend Charles’s coronation, sending first lady Jill Biden instead.
There's a lot of talk about hydrogen's potential. But transportation costs represent a big challenge -- The buzz around hydrogen has gotten increasingly loud in the past few years — many see it as an important tool in reducing the environmental footprint of heavy industry and helping economies hit net-zero goals. The green hydrogen sector, which is centered on producing it using renewable sources of energy like wind and solar, has drawn particular interest and boasts some high-profile backers. They include German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who in 2022 called it “one of the most important technologies for a climate-neutral world” and “the key to decarbonizing our economies.” In the world of business, multinationals from Iberdrola to Siemens Energy are also looking to make plays in green hydrogen. But while there’s a huge amount of excitement about the potential of hydrogen — the International Energy Agency describes it as a “versatile energy carrier” — there are also undoubted challenges. For a start, the vast majority of hydrogen production is still based on fossil fuels, not renewables — a fact clearly at odds with net-zero goals. And when it comes to green hydrogen specifically, production costs are a significant issue, and will need to be reduced in the years ahead. Transporting hydrogen from production sites to users is another equally important factor to consider. “Hydrogen is pretty expensive to move,” Murray Douglas, head of hydrogen research at Wood Mackenzie, told CNBC during an interview. “It’s more difficult to move than natural gas ... technically, engineering wise … it’s just harder,” he added. Douglas is not alone in highlighting some of the hurdles in delivering hydrogen. The U.S. Department of Energy, for instance, notes key challenges “include reducing cost, increasing energy efficiency, maintaining hydrogen purity, and minimizing hydrogen leakage.” The DOE adds that more research is required to “analyze the trade-offs between the hydrogen production options and the hydrogen delivery options when considered together as a system.” In relation to the logistics surrounding green hydrogen in particular, one area that will need attention is the location of production facilities. Often, these are earmarked for areas where sources of renewable energy are abundant — such as Australia, North Africa and the Middle East — but many miles away from where the hydrogen will actually be used. Wood Mackenzie’s Douglas referenced transportation options when reflecting on the investment horizon for the next 10 years. “You can obviously pipe it, but you probably need a dedicated pipeline,” he said, noting that this would likely need to be a new build and close to end-users. The only other realistic option in this investment horizon, he said, relates to exporting the hydrogen as ammonia. “You produce the hydrogen, the green hydrogen, and then you would synthesize it into ammonia with nitrogen,” he said. The shipping of ammonia was, Douglas noted, “a pretty established technology and industry — there’s already a bunch of receiving ports in place.” This ammonia could then be sold directly to end users, such as fertilizer producers. An alternative option would be to “crack the ammonia back into hydrogen,” although this would not be without its own issues. “As soon as you start ‘cracking’ back into hydrogen use, you start to incur some … quite big energy losses,” Douglas said.
Soaring temperatures test electric grid in transition - As summer heat continues to scorch the nation, a key question is gaining urgency: Will the grid hold up? So far, the electric system — including in Texas, the leading energy producer with a notoriously stressed grid — has kept power flowing even as wind and solar play increasingly important roles. But with life-threatening temperatures hitting major cities this week and some of the year’s hottest weeks ahead, the power grid may be tested in new ways. Brutal weather patterns have helped set global highs for recorded heat and added a new pressure point for the U.S. grid amid its transition to cleaner sources such as intermittent renewables. How this summer unfolds will influence energy policy decisions at the state and federal level. “As we look at the future power system, things are becoming much more complex,” said Jeff Dagle, chief electrical engineer at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. “If we retire facilities that can be started up and ramped up based on the needs of the system with generation resources that are not dispatchable like wind and solar, it becomes more complicated.” The grid is being monitored closely after the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC), the nation’s grid watchdog, warned before this summer that two-thirds of North America could face power shortages in extreme weather. Although the grid monitor said it expected no problems in normal weather, it also said a “heat dome” that sits across parts of the country could lead to emergencies in the Pacific Northwest, Sun Belt, Southeast and Texas. And although some areas — including parts of Oklahoma and East Texas — experienced power outages due to severe storms, there have been no reported widespread U.S. power outages this summer due to hot conditions or stretched demand from customers cranking up their air conditioning.
Grid rewiring: An answer for Biden's climate goals? — Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm’s search for clean energy solutions has led her to a strategy that dodges permitting problems, saves money and could bring large amounts of renewables online, but remains largely unused. The concept is called advanced reconductoring, and studies show it holds the potential to help break a growing logjam in delivering new renewable power to meet the Biden administration’s steep clean energy goals. The idea is to restring existing high-voltage towers with new cables employing state-of-the-art carbon fiber or aluminum alloy materials. In return for a higher upfront cost, the advanced wires can deliver up to twice the current of same-sized conventional steel and aluminum cables. That in turn would accelerate a surge in transmission capacity without the long wait times and landowner fights that have plagued many earlier projects It’s an idea that is popping up in Granholm’s speeches. At a visit to the Electric Power Research Institute laboratory in Charlotte late last month, Granholm held a wrist-sized sample of a new advanced cable that could carry a sizable part of President Joe Biden’s uphill decarbonization goals — if it can gain traction. EPRI’s research on the cables, “hopefully is changing the game for how utilities across the country see the opportunity to do this reconductoring,” Granholm said during the laboratory visit. “That is one of the solutions we’re looking at.” Analysts at Princeton University and other researchers have calculated that the capacity of the nation’s 160,000-mile, high-voltage networks may have to triple by 2050 to meet a trio of steep demands — zeroing out grid carbon emissions, expanding electricity production as electric vehicles and data centers multiply, and strengthening power networks against extreme weather. Under Granholm, DOE is pursuing multiple programs to build more big, multistate lines to move renewable power from wind- and sun-rich regions to cities. Backing comes from the $2.5 billion Transmission Facilitation Program funded by the infrastructure law and potential loan guarantees from the Department of Energy. “We want to have the first tranches of all of that money out the door” by this time next year, Granholm said at the EPRI visit, referring to the $2.5 billion. But large-scale transmission projects would need to set speed records for planning, siting and permitting to meet climate goals, considering that such projects typically take longer than seven years from planning to operation. Reconductoring, on the other hand, takes advantage of transmission owners’ most valuable asset — the rights of way of their existing lines, said EPRI Chief Executive Arshad Mansoor in an interview. “There is no environmental permitting, no tower construction; just change the wire,” said David Townley, director of public policy for CTC Global Corp., a leading advanced cable manufacturer, in an interview.
Shell Explores Selling Stake in Renewable Power Unit -Shell Plc is exploring options for its global renewable power operations, including a potential stake sale to outside investors, people with knowledge of the matter said. The UK energy giant is working with advisers to study a range of possibilities that could also include separating the business into a more independent unit, the people said. It’s approached a number of international investors to gauge their interest in buying a stake, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The deliberations come as Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan focuses the company’s investments on fossil fuels in a bid to increase shareholder returns and narrow the valuation gap with Shell’s US peers. Discussions are still at an early stage, and there’s no certainty they will lead to a transaction, the people said. Shell may also consider introducing outside investors into some other operations such as its downstream assets, one of the people said.
Japan to dump Fukushima radioactive water into Pacific Ocean - Japan plans to proceed with the discharging of 1.3 million tonnes of radioactive water accumulated after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster into the Pacific Ocean after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gave its stamp of approval last week. The decision has provoked opposition and protests in Japan itself, as well as in neighbouring countries including China and South Korea, over the potential impact on the environment and human health. What happened at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in March 2011 was the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. A major magnitude 9.1 earthquake hit the region in northern Japan, triggering a huge tsunami reaching as high as 16.7 metres. It struck the inadequately protected plant, knocking out electrical and cooling systems, leading to partial meltdowns of three of its six reactors. Out of concern for its investment, the plant operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), compounded the problems and dangers by failing to rapidly respond by pumping sea water through the damaged reactors to cool them. More than a decade on, the task of de-commissioning and cleaning up the site is likely to continue for decades. TEPCO has accumulated massive quantities of radioactive water—irradiated groundwater and reactor coolant—that has been treated using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove most but not all radioactive isotopes. The water still contains tritium—an isotope of hydrogen—that has a half-life of 12.5 years (the time for the radioactive level to halve). The water is currently stored in 1,000 huge steel tanks, but TEPCO claims it is running out of space and can build no more. The company, backed by the Japanese government, has been pressing for years for permission to dump the water into the Pacific Ocean, claiming there is no alternative. Under the plan, the radioactive water would be diluted using sea water to levels of tritium within international standards then discharged over several decades through a kilometre-long pipe into the sea. Such has been the opposition in Japan and from neighbouring countries, however, that Tokyo called on the IAEA to conduct a study of the proposed release. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi was in Tokyo last Tuesday to present the findings of the UN body’s two-year safety review to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. In the report’s foreword, Grossi declared that the IAEA concluded that TEPCO’s plan was consistent with relevant international safety standards. Moreover, TEPCO’s “gradual discharges of the treated water to the sea… would have a negligible radiological impact on people and the environment.”
HB 6 coal plant charges mount up again in Ohio - Ohio ratepayers will again shell out money for two 1950s-era coal plants next month, following a year of cents-per-month credits. Meanwhile, regulators have yet to rule on years-old challenges to millions of dollars of spending for the plants.Critics have called the charges a bailout and have tried multiple times to repeal the coal plant provisions of House Bill 6, the 2019 law at the heart of Ohio’s ongoing corruption scandal. The provision, in the form of a bill rider, has generated a credit for customers over the past year because of a short-term shift in economic conditions as global prices rose for natural gas and coal. Utilities say that shows the rider provides a hedge against high energy prices. But new filings show utilities intend to start collecting money from customers again in July. And their estimates show the plants will likely lose as much as $38 million over the next six months.Meanwhile, an analysis conducted earlier this year for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association shows the plants have consistently lost money, and their costs could climb to roughly $800 million by 2030.“Under the status quo, these plants were losing money for years and years and years, to the point where the utilities tried to fundamentally change the regulatory regime in the state to get to the point where they could just break even from their bad investments,” said Neil Waggoner, the Sierra Club’s federal deputy director for energy campaigns. The bill rider applies to the Kyger Creek plant in Ohio and the Clifty Creek plant in Indiana, known colloquially as the “OVEC plants” after the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation that operates them. Multiple utilities — including American Electric Power, Duke Energy and AES — own stakes in OVEC, along with other companies.Sally Thelen, spokesperson for Duke Energy, said the rider “is not a subsidy” and “functions as a hedge against volatile wholesale market conditions.” The fact that there were credits “reflects the fact that the mechanism is working as intended,” she said.But the cents-per-month credits for roughly the past year happened largely because of the war in Ukraine and worldwide increases in wholesale gas and coal prices while the OVEC plants had contracts for some coal supplies at lower prices, according to the report by RunnerStone for the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association. The higher energy prices meant utilities had collected more from ratepayers than they needed, the report said. Hence, the credits.“The basic fundamentals haven’t changed,” Waggoner said. If anything, stricter environmental rules will drive the coal plants’ costs even higher, he added. Filings by Duke Energy Ohio, AEP Ohio and AES Ohio at the end of May show they plan to collect charges again from customers starting in July. Depending on the utility, the charge will be 15 or 16 cents monthly for those three companies’ residential ratepayers, with lower rates for commercial and industrial customers. FirstEnergy’s residential Ohio customers will pay 4 cents per month.“By the utilities’ own estimates, they are set to lose $38 million from July to December on OVEC — losses they’ll charge to regular working people and businesses,” RunnerStone CEO John Seryak said, noting that this year’s charge “is being muted by the utilities truing up from past over-collections. Once that true-up is done, the rate customers pay will likely increase.”“Ohioans have already paid for $400 million in losses for OVEC,” due to the HB 6 subsidies and prior regulatory rulings, Seryak said. “And I expect that to double by 2030.”
Ohio citizens need to act now to protest first batch of proposals to drill under our parks - cleveland.com (letter to editor) House Bill 507, signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine earlier this year, purports to regulate the sale of “poultry chicks” but is stuffed with a pernicious law requiring state agencies to open public lands (state parks and wildlife refuges) for fracking by oil and gas corporations. Fracking spews methane gas and poisons fresh water. People and other living creatures close to fracking wells risk being exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. The well drilling pads cause 24-hour light and noise pollution, interfering with the life cycles of the creatures living in the park. No one wants to see our beloved parks destroyed.The excuse for this travesty is that fracking brings royalty money to Ohio, but that likely won’t trickle to the communities who will suffer the most from the devastation. Were the Ohio politicians passing HB 507 the beneficiaries of large donations?As of May 30, oil and gas companies have begun “nominating” parcels to start drilling. The first batch of park nominations include several parcels in Salt Fork State Park and the Valley Run, and Zepernick wildlife areas. Ohioans have until July 20 to protest the nominations. Go to www.saveohioparks.org to get more information and send a protest letter. Susan Busch, Peninsula
Activists rally to prevent fracking under Ohio's Salt Fork State Park - WOSU Public Media -Activists who want to prevent fracking in Ohio’s state parks are trying to rally more people to their cause. They’re fighting against a new law that requires the state to consider proposals to drill for oil and natural gas under Ohio’s public lands. “Make no mistake, the decision has been made without the consent of the public to whom these lands belong and against the desperate warnings of scientists that our continued exploitation of fossil fuels will send the human race to its grave,” said Aaron Dunbar, of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action. He was speaking to a gathering of about 65 people at a pavilion near the beach at Salt Fork State Park in Guernsey County, southeast Ohio, in early JulyIn January, Governor DeWine signed a bill requiring the state to consider proposals to drill under state-owned property, like parks and wildlife areas. Agencies have had the authority to approve drilling projects since a 2011 law allowed for it, but that law stated that agencies “may” lease state lands for oil and natural gas production. The new law now says they “shall” lease it.Since then, the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission has created a process to accept drilling applications on state land. Twelve have been submitted so far, though the names of the companies are being kept confidential by the commission.Some proposals are along highways, in wildlife areas, and at Wolf Run State Park. Three are at Salt Fork State Park. Salt Fork has hiking trails, marinas, a resort lodge and an 18-hole golf course.“[These are]…state taxpayers’ lands that we own, we pay for, and we use,” said long-time environmental activist Roxanne Groff.More than 14,000 acres of the 17,000-acre park have been proposed for fracking, a process that includes drilling horizontal wells for miles underground. A new group, Save Ohio Parks, organized this rally against the plan. People hung signs in the pavilion that read “Ohio: Fracking the Heart of It All,” and “No fracking on public lands.” “Every inch of this park will have a lateral under it, sucking out the oil and gas,” Groff said.
Columbiana County, OH Evacuates 450 After Hilcorp Gas Well Accident -- Roughly 450 people within a one-mile radius of a Hilcorp Energy well pad in Fairfield Township (Columbiana County, OH) were evacuated following a mishap at the pad. Hilcorp says a third-party contractor “struck a well head” on the pad around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday, causing natural gas to leak into the air. What does that mean, that someone struck a well head?
One-mile evacuation order currently in effect near Crestview High School --There is currently a one-mile evacuation order in effect near Crestview High School. Columbiana police and fire dispatch has confirmed with 21 News that a one-mile evacuation order is currently in effect due to an uncontrolled natural gas well. Dispatchers confirmed that the incident originated at the Tarka Pad on Fairfield School Road. The road is currently closed to traffic and Hilcorp Energy is assessing the situation. According to a press release from Ohio Governor, Mike DeWine, a third-party contractor struck a well head at around 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Emergency shutdown devices for the remaining 12 wells on the pad were activated and all remaining wells and pipelines are shut in. At this point, it's unknown how long the evacuation order will be in effect, but Columbiana County EMA Director, Peggy Clark tells 21 News that the well control company is expected to be on site Tuesday evening. According to a representative from Hilcorp Energy, no injuries have been reported so far and Hilcorp is working with local emergency crews to establish a perimeter while crews respond. Additionally Ohio EPA is on scene conducting air monitoring and providing incident support until the situation is under control. ODNR is working with authorities as well to monitor the situation.The Ohio EPA also says that no ground-level contaminants have been detected at this time, and they continue to monitor ground level for methane and volatile organic compounds. So far, they say gas is ejecting straight up into the atmosphere where it is dispersed. In the meantime, folks are asked to avoid the area and a claims hotline has been established for those affected by the incident. Governor DeWine is advising residents to stay in their homes with all doors and windows closed unless ordered to evacuate and close the fresh air intake of their air conditioning systems if possible.Anyone experiencing unusual shortness of breath, dizziness or clumsiness that they believe to be related to this incident should contact their local health care provider.Currently, the Columbiana Fire Department, East Palestine Fire Department and Red Cross are all at the evacuation site. 21 News crews at the scene say there are currently six evacuees at the site, but Governor DeWine says over 450 people have been safely evacuated from the area. The Columbiana County Sheriff posted the following information on Facebook: There has been a gas line leak. We are evacuating a 1 mile radius from Fairfield School Road just North of State Route 517. The evacuation is from North of Woodvale Lane to the South and Just North of Crestview Road. Lower Elkton Road to the West at State Route 558 and West of Crestview High School. The Crestview Elementary School is available for shelter. Red Cross has been notified. Thank You- Sheriff Brian McLaughlin
New Drilling Permits Sought in Columbiana County - – EAP Ohio LLC, a subsidiary of Houston-based Encino Energy Partners, has plans to drill four new horizontal wells in Columbiana County, according to data released from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. EAP has requested permits to drill in Butler Township at the Lehwald Farm, according to ODNR. No final permits for the wells have been issued…
TWO EASTERN OHIO OIL AND GAS ACCIDENTS HIGHLIGHT HAZARDS OF FRACKING OHIO STATE PARKS, WILDLIFE AREAS – Save Ohio Parks An oil spill and a methane gas leak occurring within a week of each other in pristine, rural eastern Ohio have citizen environmentalists at Save Ohio Parks up in arms. “There have been two oil and gas accidents in Ohio within the last week — and yet the oil industry wants to surround our public lands with frack pads,” said Cathy Cowan Becker, co-founder at Save Ohio Parks. “What if this had happened next to a state park or wildlife area? How will the ODNR and OEPA evacuate an entire park full of campers, hikers, swimmers, hunters, and tourists? How will the air and water pollution affect these pristine spaces? We cannot entrust our public lands to an industry that extracts them for profit.”July marks the height of Ohio’s tourism season. Tourism generates an estimated $47 billion per year for the state.News 5 Cleveland reported that a methane gas leak at a well pad in Columbiana County, Ohio, caused the evacuation of 450 people within a mile radius of a well pad accident on Tuesday. The Columbiana well pad accident occurred 20 miles northeast of Zepernick Wildlife Area, which is on the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ list of state parks and wildlife areas nominated for fracking under a new state law kickstarting fracking in Ohio state parks, forests, wildlife areas, and public lands.ODNR’s Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management was responding to the accident, which occurred when a third-party contractor struck a wellhead on the pad. Hilcorp Energy Company reported that emergency shutdown occurred for 12 wells on the pad, a statement by Gov. Mike DeWine said.A claims hotline has been established and residents are urged to stay indoors with windows and doors closed.The Akron Beacon Journal reported Monday, July 10, that an oil spill on Tuscarawas River near Barberton, Ohio, was killing wildlife and fish. A bicyclist noticed the spill on Wednesday, July 5, and reported it to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA). He later posted video of the spill on social media Monday when he noticed a barrier designed to stop oil on the river was compromised and allowed oil to travel down river. FOX 8 reported that oil recycler Noble Oil of North Carolina was responsible for the motor oil spill that is turning the water black and killing wildlife. OEPA is leading the cleanup.“Once again the oil and gas industry proves it cannot operate without accidents that endanger the public and our environment,” said Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., an ecologist, research chemist and volunteer with Save Ohio Parks. “Yet Ohio’s politicians think this industry can be trusted to frack our precious state parks.”
Ohio commission considers state park drilling requests -A state commission will soon decide whether to greenlight drilling for natural gas under Ohio state parks, wildlife areas, and other state-owned lands. Ohio’s Oil & Gas Land Management Commission is currently considering a dozen applications to extract natural gas from state property under new rules adopted pursuant to a state law that requires it to expedite such requests. Public comments on the first batch of proposals, which include parcels at Salt Fork State Park and Valley Run and Zepernick wildlife areas, are due July 20. Comments on proposals affecting Wolf Run State Park and other parcels are due July 28 or Aug. 11. Rulings could come in the next few months.The commission was created under a 2011 state law that gave agencies the option of directly leasing state property for oil and gas drilling until the commission had leasing procedures in place. A last-minute amendment to an unrelated bill this spring would have automatically mandated agency leases for drilling until the commission adopted procedures and lease terms. A lawsuit by groups opposing that law is pending in the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas. Meanwhile, the commission adopted those rules in May, along with a lease form that took effect on May 28. Drilling proposals started coming in two days later.Gov. Mike DeWine said in January that his administration’s policy against new surface drilling in state parks would continue. However, the new procedures allow applications for horizontal drilling under parks from well pads situated just beyond the surface boundaries of parks and wildlife areas.“A frack rig right outside the park borders is still going to have a major effect on the experience in that park,” said Cathy Cowan Becker, a co-founder of Save Ohio Parks. People come to Ohio parks and wildlife areas for hiking, camping, swimming, boating, fishing and other activities, Becker said, and their use and enjoyment would be adversely affected by lights, noise, increased traffic and air emissions from well pads. Ohio has also had multiple accidents relating to oil and gas. A July 5 oil spill reached the Tuscarawas River, and a July 11 methane leak 20 miles north of the Zepernick Wildlife Area required the evacuation of 450 people. “What if this had happened next to a state park or wildlife area?” Becker said. “How will the ODNR and [Ohio Environmental Protection Agency] evacuate an entire park full of campers, hikers, swimmers, hunters, and tourists? How will the air and water pollution affect these pristine spaces?”Even without accidents, drilling fracked gas from state parks or wildlife areas would affect the resources and habitats there, said environmental scientist Randi Pokladnik. Horizontal fracturing of a formation to get natural gas to flow out requires millions of gallons of water, plus smaller amounts of potentially toxic chemical mixtures whose makeup is kept secret.Those massive amounts of water must come from somewhere. And even if the water did not directly come from a lake where people swim, boat or fish, withdrawing the necessary quantities could lower water levels throughout an area, Pokladnik said. Dust and silt from well pad construction and traffic could also negatively impact species in streams, such as hellbenders, she added. Huge amounts of water do flow back up after fracking, along with substantial concentrations of salt and some radioactive compounds. Trucks transport much of the flowback water toinjection wells, where it’s removed from the water cycle, but massive spills have happened, including one in Noble County in 2021. Smaller amounts of wastewater also come up when wells are in production.“We’re open to considering presentations from anyone,” commission chair Ryan Richardson said at the May 15 meeting when the procedures for picking parcels were finalized. And Pokladnik did make a short presentation at the commission’s June 28 meeting. FracTracker’s Great Lakes Program Coordinator Ted Auch also spoke, as well as emergency response and hazardous materials expert Silverio Caggiano, a former battalion chief at the Youngstown Fire Department. By then, the comment period was already running on some of the parcel nominations. One commissioner didn’t show up, another was late, and those who were there “didn’t ask me anything about the issues related to the forest ecosystem,” Pokladnik said.
Buckeye Brine Seeks Permit for 4th Injection Well in Coshocton, OH - Marcellus Drilling News - MDN has covered news about wastewater injection well company Buckeye Brine for more than a decade (see our Buckeye Brine stories here). Over the years, the company has drilled and safely operated three injection wells at the same location in Coshocton County, OH. Buckeye recently filed an application with the Ohio EPA to drill and operate a fourth wastewater injection well at the Coshocton location. The OEPA recently held a hearing, and as before, a group of activists and local residents turned up to oppose the plan.
New sinkhole forms along Mariner East pipeline in Chester County - StateImpact – NPR - The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission is investigating a newly formed “earth feature” along the Mariner East natural gas liquids pipeline in Chester County.More often referred to as land subsidence or a sinkhole, it occurred in the area of Lisa Drive, West Whiteland Township, where multiple sinkholes first appeared during construction of the pipeline in March 2018.At that time, the PUC ordered a temporary shut down of a parallel natural gas pipeline, citing a “catastrophic” effect if it led to a leak. At least five homes on Lisa Drive were later sold to the Texas-based pipeline builder and operator Energy Transfer after its work damaged the aquifer and left gaping holes in residents’ backyards.Sinkholes caused by construction continued to appear in Chester County, including near the Chester Valley Trail and the Exton Library. The area sits on limestone, a porous rock that was prone to sinkhole development even before construction of the Mariner East.In this most recent incident, Energy Transfer notified the Department of Environmental Protection that on July 6, a new sinkhole, 18 inches in diameter and 54 inches deep, opened up near its natural gas liquids lines along the Lisa Drive right-of-way. The company reported it had excavated and backfilled the sinkhole, according to a DEP spokesperson.In an emailed statement to WHYY, the PUC said its “independent Bureau of Investigation – which includes the Pipeline Safety Division – was notified of, and responded to, an earth feature on the Lisa Drive right-of-way in West Whiteland Township, Chester County. I&E will continue their investigation, as appropriate.”Ginny Kerslake, a Chester County resident and organizer with Food and Water Watch, visited the site after hearing from a nearby resident. On Tuesday, she said she saw fresh straw on top of what looked to be the site of the newly remediated sinkhole. Energy Transfer did not respond to a request for comment by Wednesday evening. In December 2022, the company filed a brief in a case before the Public Utility Commission where Chester and Delaware county residents sought a complete shutdown of the pipeline system for safety reasons. In the brief, one of the company’s experts, Dr. Timothy Bechtel, vouched for the subsequent remediation of the Lisa Drive sinkholes. He referred to the area as “the most intensely geophysically investigated real estate of which I am aware…the most geophysically studied parcel on the planet.” Alex Bomstein, an attorney with the Clean Air Council, a plaintiff in the case, was surprised when informed of the new sinkhole.“This was supposed to be put to rest,” Bomstein said. “So why is this extremely analyzed piece of earth shifting once again beneath our feet?”The Mariner East pipelines carry volatile natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale gas fields in Ohio and western Pennsylvania across the state to the Marcus Hook industrial complex in Delaware County. Construction of the three-line project began in February 2017 but became mired in legal challenges and mishaps, and was subject to a number of consent decrees resulting from citizen lawsuits. It was completed in February 2022, several years behind schedule.The DEP has issued dozens of notices of violations to Energy Transfer, which has paid more than $20 million in fines and assessments since construction began.In August 2022, the company agreed to pay an additional $10 million while “accepting criminal responsibility” for dozens of charges related to construction of its Mariner East pipeline project and the 2018 explosion of the Revolution pipeline in Beaver County.
PA DEP Forms Ctte to Dole Out $5M in Shell Cracker Shakedown Cash -Marcellus Drilling News - Although Shell maintains flaring and accidental emissions from its new multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker in Beaver County, PA, have not violated state and federal air standards, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) says they have–on numerous occasions. Shell didn’t argue the point, and in May, the company agreed to pay nearly $10 million in fines and “contributions” to benefit local communities (see Shell Cracker Agrees to $10M Shakedown from PA, Restarting Now). The DEP announced yesterday that it had appointed a 17-member committee to figure out how to dole out $5 million to fund local community projects near the cracker.
Bidenistas Dispense $163 Million to Plug Old O&G Wells in OH-PA-WV - Marcellus Drilling News - In the fall of 2021, President Biden signed into law the so-called Infrastructure bill, some $1.2 trillion in pork barrel spending, passed with the help of turncoat Republicans (seeBiden So-Called $1.2T Infrastructure Bill Passes Thanks to RINOs). Only about 9% of the $1.2 trillion will go to actual infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. One of the line items in the bill (so small it’s a rounding error) is money to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. A small amount of money was distributed last fall, a year after the bill became law (see PA DEP Solicits Bids to Plug First 50 Orphaned Wells Using Fed $$). The Bidenistas are now issuing the next round–some $660 million in total, of which $163 million (or 25%) will go to Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
39 New Shale Well Permits Issued for PA-OH-WV Jun 26-Jul 2 | Marcellus Drilling News - New shale permits issued for Jun 26 – Jul 2 in the Marcellus/Utica saw a dramatic increase, thanks to a bump in Pennsylvania’s numbers. There were 39 new permits issued last week, way up from 11 issued the previous week. Last week’s permit tally included 30 new permits in Pennsylvania, 8 new permits in Ohio, and just 1 new permit in West Virginia. Coterra Energy scored the most new permits with a whopping 12 issued in Susquehanna County, PA (for two well pads). Range Resources had the second most new permits, with 7 permits issued in Washington County, PA (for one pad). ANTERO RESOURCES | APEX ENERGY | BRADFORD COUNTY | CAMPBELL OIL & GAS | CARROLL COUNTY | CHESAPEAKE ENERGY | CLEARFIELD COUNTY | CNX RESOURCES |COTERRA ENERGY (CABOT O&G) | DODDRIDGE COUNTY | ENERGY COMPANIES | EQT CORP | FAYETTE COUNTY | GREENE COUNTY (PA) | GREYLOCK ENERGY | INR | NOBLE COUNTY | POTTER COUNTY | RANGE RESOURCES CORP | SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY | TRIBUNE RESOURCES | WASHINGTON COUNTY | WESTMORELAND COUNTY
Appeals court orders temporary halt to Mountain Valley Pipeline construction - The stay was ordered despite language in the debt ceiling law directing federal agencies to issue permits needed for the controversial pipeline. A federal appeals court on Monday ordered the backers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline to halt construction in a national forest while it reviews a request by environmental groups to challenge the Biden administration’s approval of the natural gas pipeline. A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, which has previously rejected permits for the project, unanimously decided to grant the motion to stop construction. The ruling came after language in the debt ceiling law directed federal agencies to issue permits needed for the controversial pipeline favored by Senate Energy Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). The judges agreed with the argument that the Wilderness Society and other environmental groups made last week that construction on the proposed natural gas pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest should stop while the court weighs the request to review the Interior Department’s record of decision allowing pipeline construction in the national forest to begin.“The court grants the motion and stays construction during the pendency of this petition for review,” the ruling read. A spokesperson for Mountain Valley Pipeline noted the decision was only related to construction in the Jefferson National Forest, a three-mile stretch of a pipeline that is planned to travel more than 300 miles.“We will have additional comment regarding the decision in the coming days,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.Ben Tettlebaum, director and senior staff attorney at the Wilderness Society, praised the decision in a statement.“Time and time again, Mountain Valley has tried to force its dangerous pipeline through the Jefferson National Forest, devastating communities in its wake and racking up violations,” Tettlebaum said. “We’re grateful that the Court has given those communities a measure of reprieve by hitting the brakes on construction across our public lands, sparing them from further irreversible damage while this important case proceeds.”Manchin, who provided the crucial vote for President Joe Biden’s climate bill last year and has been one of the pipeline’s big champions, protested the court’s decision.“The law passed by Congress & signed by POTUS is clear - the 4th Circuit no longer has jurisdiction over MVP’s construction permits,” Manchin said in a tweet Monday night. “This new order halting construction is unlawful, & regardless of your position on MVP, it should alarm every American when a court ignores the law.”
Appeals court blocks construction on Mountain Valley Pipeline - WFMJ - (AP) — A federal appeals court has again blocked construction on a contentious natural gas pipeline being built through Virginia and West Virginia, this time doing so even after Congress ordered the project's approval. The stay issued Monday by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond comes after Congress passed legislation last month requiring all necessary permits be issued for construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The law also stripped the 4th Circuit from jurisdiction over the case. Environmentalists, though, argued that Congress overstepped its authority by enacting the law, saying it violates the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution. “Congress cannot pick winners and losers in pending litigation by compelling findings or results without supplying new substantive law for the courts to apply,” lawyers for the environmentalists wrote in court papers. Equitrans Midstream, one of the companies building the pipeline, issued a statement Tuesday saying it is considering an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. It said the ruling jeopardizes its plan to complete the pipeline by the end of the year. "The court’s decision defies the will and clear intent of a bipartisan Congress ... to expedite completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, which was deemed to be in the national interest, the company said. The law greenlighting the pipeline was passed last month as part of a bipartisan bill to raise the debt ceiling. The provision that deals exclusively with the Mountain Valley Pipeline was included after negotiators failed to reach an agreement on broader regulatory reform. The White House supported putting the provision in the debt ceiling bill — over the objections of environmentalists and some Democrats — as a concession to Sen. Joe Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat and pipeline supporter who was a key vote for last year’s sweeping legislation that included deep investments in climate programs. The stay issued Monday focuses on a 3-mile (5-kilometer) section of that cuts through the Jefferson National Forest. Environmentalists say the construction plan will cause erosion that will ruin soil and water quality. On Tuesday, the court issued a similar stay in connection with parallel litigation alleging the pipeline would violate the Endangered Species Act. Environmentalists made similar constitutional arguments in that case. “Congress cannot mandate that federal regulators throw caution to the wind — environmental laws are more than just mere suggestions, and must be adhered to,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement. The Fourth Circuit has blocked construction of the pipeline on multiple occasions over the years. In court papers, lawyers for the pipeline say Congress is within its rights to strip the court from jurisdiction over the case. They also say that any debate over the law's constitutionality should be heard not by the 4th Circuit but by an appellate court in Washington, because the law passed by Congress last month spells out that precise scenario. “Granting a stay of any kind would fly in the face of this recent, on-point, and emphatic Congressional command that the remaining construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline must proceed without further delay,” the project's lawyers wrote in court briefs. Mountain Valley Pipeline says the project is already substantially complete and that only three acres (one hectare) of trees need to be cleared, compared to more than 4,400 acres (1,700 hectares) already cleared. The $6.6 billion, 300-mile (500-kilometer) pipeline is designed to meet growing energy demands in the South and Mid-Atlantic by transporting gas from the Marcellus and Utica fields in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The stay includes no explanation of the court's rationale. It remains in place only until the court issues a full ruling on the merits of the case.
Colluding 4th Circuit Judges Do It Again – MVP Halted in Jeff Forest - Marcellus Drilling News -Three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., clown judges from 4th Circus) yesterday Congress, the President, and the entire country the judicial equivalent of the double-barrel middle finger by illegally ruling to block the construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) through 3.5 miles of Jefferson National Forest–for a fourth time. The three judges–Judge Stephanie Thacker, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, Judge James Wynn, appointed by Barack Hussein Obama, and Chief Judge Roger Gregory, appointed by William Jefferson Clinton–are (in our opinion) corrupt and should immediately be impeached and removed from the bench. Their malfeasance has gone on long enough.
All Construction of MVP Stopped as 4th Circuit Stays Second Permit - Marcellus Drilling News - Yesterday MDN told you that on Monday, the clown judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (i.e., the 4th Circus) illegally stayed a THIRD permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) for Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) to traverse a piddly 3.5 miles of the federally-owned Jefferson National Forest (see Colluding 4th Circuit Judges Do It Again – MVP Halted in Jeff Forest). No sooner had we delivered that news than the clowns returned (cue Judy Collins, Send in the Clowns). Yesterday the 4th Circus judges slapped a stay on a second permit, a THIRD permit issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concerning endangered species. Both stays, which are blocking new construction, are illegal according to the recently adopted law known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) of 2023 (see Equitrans Announces Mountain Valley Pipe to Get Completed in 2023).
Equitrans Midstream Releases Statement Related to Mountain Valley Pipeline's Jefferson National Forest Authorizations --Equitrans Midstream Corporation (NYSE: ETRN), today, released a statement related to the July 10, 2023, decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit regarding construction in the Jefferson National Forest for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project."We are disappointed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s remarkable decision to grant a one-sentence stay halting all construction in the Jefferson National Forest with no explanation. The Court’s decision defies the will and clear intent of a bipartisan Congress and this Administration in passing legislation to expedite completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline project, which was deemed to be in the national interest. We believe the Court also exceeded its authority, as Congress expressly and plainly removed its jurisdiction. Further, the fact that the Court issued the stay prior to receiving full briefing from the federal government and Mountain Valley is particularly telling and demonstrates why Congressional intervention was appropriate. We are evaluating all legal options, which include filing an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Unless this decision is promptly reversed, it would jeopardize Mountain Valley’s ability to complete construction by year-end 2023."
Mountain Valley Pipeline Developer Weighs Supreme Court Appeal - Mountain Valley Pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream Corp. is considering filing an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court following the Fourth Circuit’s decision to pause the project’s construction in Virginia’s Jefferson National Forest. Equitrans was “disappointed” with the decision, saying the court defied the “will and clear intent” of Congress and the Biden administration that passed legislation to complete the project. “We believe the Court also exceeded its authority, as Congress expressly and plainly removed its jurisdiction,” the company said Tuesday in a statement.“Further, the fact that the Court issued the stay prior to receiving full briefing from the federal government and Mountain Valley is particularly telling and demonstrates why Congressional intervention was appropriate,” the company said. “We are evaluating all legal options, which include filing an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.”On Monday, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit temporarily blocked construction of a portion of the pipeline in a case brought by the Wilderness Society. The Fourth Circuit on Tuesday also granted a stay to environmental groups led by Appalachian Voices in another case challenging the more than 300-mile gas project stretching from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia.The court in that case halted the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s biological opinion and incidental take statement under the Endangered Species Act, which is used to determine impacts on endangered species and critical habitats—and had been petitioned for review in April.On June 26, organizations including Appalachian Voices, the Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity pushed back against the Interior Department’s motion to dismiss the case and called the provisions of the debt-limit law protecting the project unconstitutional.The Wilderness Society echoed those arguments in their own case.The Interior Department and Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC argued on Monday in both cases that the court didn’t have jurisdiction due to the language in the debt-limit law.Appalachian Voices claimed that language only applies to new challenges to the project, not litigation prior to the law’s passage on June 3. The Wilderness Society said the court has jurisdiction because their claim has to do with environmental statutes and falls under the Administrative Procedure Act.The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg Law is operated by entities controlled by Michael Bloomberg.The Southern Environmental Law Center represents the Wilderness Society. The respondents in that case are represented by the Justice Department, and Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC is represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.Appalachian Voices and the other petitioners are represented by the Sierra Club, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The respondents in that case are also represented by the Justice Department, and Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC is represented by Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, Beveridge & Diamond PC, Holland & Hart LLP, and Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP.On June 26, organizations including Appalachian Voices, the Sierra Club, and the Center for Biological Diversity pushed back against the Interior Department’s motion to dismiss the case and called the provisions of the debt-limit law protecting the project unconstitutional.The Wilderness Society echoed those arguments in their own case.The Interior Department and Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC argued on Monday in both cases that the court didn’t have jurisdiction due to the language in the debt-limit law.Appalachian Voices claimed that language only applies to new challenges to the project, not litigation prior to the law’s passage on June 3. The Wilderness Society said the court has jurisdiction because their claim has to do with environmental statutes and falls under the Administrative Procedure Act.The cases are Appalachian Voices v. United States Department of the Interior, 4th Cir., No. 23-01384, 7/11/23 and Wilderness Society v. Bureau of Land Management, 4th Cir., No. 23-01594, 7/10/23.
Extreme Heat Drives U.S. Toward Fossil Fuel Milestone -The United States is set to use more natural gas to generate electricity than ever before this summer as extreme heat sends demand for air conditioning skyrocketing. In its latest monthly forecast, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected the country to burn 4% more gas in July and August this year than during the same months of 2022. For weeks now, heat waves have clocked unprecedented triple-digit temperatures across the U.S., from Puerto Rico to the Pacific Northwest. The combination of global warming and El Niño temperature patterns is only expected to worsen as the months go on, spurring more Americans to crank electricity-hungry air conditioning units to avoid the deadly effects of overheating. “As coal provides less and less power to the grid, we expect the contributions of natural gas and renewables in particular to increase.” Renewables such as solar and wind are projected to pump out a 6% increase in electricity throughout the next month and a half compared to the same period last year. Nuclear plants, long in decline in the U.S., are on track for a 2% uptick in generation between now and August as the first new reactor built in the country in decades comes online. The growth of those zero-carbon sources of electricity may only temper the effects of surging gas use. Since photovoltaic panels and wind turbines only generate electricity sometimes, gas has become the nation’s primary power source, both as a replacement for coal and as backup for renewables. The price of natural gas has come down since soaring to the highest level since 2008 last July as the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent energy markets into chaos. Russia is the world’s No. 2 producer of the fuel behind the U.S., and until last year provided the bulk of Europe’s supply. While prices are expected to remain relatively low this summer in the U.S., analysts predict big swings will remain the norm for natural gas for years to come. With prices falling, the number of new drilling rigs deployed at oil and gas wells across the U.S. fell for a second straight month at the end of June, a sign of a pullback even as the industry sees demand ratcheting upward.
Leaks Can Make Natural Gas as Bad as Coal for Climate, Study Says - The New York Times --Natural gas, long seen as a cleaner alternative to coal and an important tool in the fight to slow global warming, can be just as harmful to the climate, a new study has concluded, unless companies can all but eliminate the leaks that plague its use.It takes as little as 0.2 percent of gas to leak to make natural gas as big a driver of climate change as coal, the study found. That’s a tiny margin of error for a gas that is notorious for leaking from drill sites, processing plants and the pipes that transport it into power stations or homes and kitchens.The bottom line: If gas leaks, even a little, “it’s as bad as coal,” said Deborah Gordon, the lead researcher and an environmental policy expert at Brown University and at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a nonprofit research organization focused on clean energy. “It can’t be considered a good bridge, or substitute.”The peer-reviewed study, which also involved researchers from Harvard and Duke Universities and NASA and is set to be published next week in the journal Environmental Research Letters, adds to a substantial body of research that has poked holes in the idea that natural gas is a suitable transitional fuel to a future powered entirely by renewables, like solar and wind.The findings throw up difficult questions about how much more money the nations of the world should invest in gas infrastructure to ward off the worst of global warming. The $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act passed by the United States Congress last year, designed to move the country away from fossil fuels and toward renewables, includes credits that would apply to some forms of natural gas.When power companies generate electricity by burning natural gas instead of coal, they emit only about half the amount of planet-warming carbon dioxide. In the United States, the shift from coal to gas, driven by a boom in oil and gas fracking, has helped reduce carbon emissions from power plants by nearly 40 percentsince 2005.But natural gas is made up mostly of methane, which is a far more potent planet-warming gas, in the short term, than carbon dioxide when it escapes unburned into the atmosphere. And there’s mounting evidence that methane is doing just that: leaking from gas systems in far larger quantities than previously thought. Sensors and infrared cameras are helping to visualize substantial leaks of methane from oil and gas infrastructure, and increasinglypowerful satellites are detecting “super-emitting” episodes from space.
Chart: The US is now exporting more LNG than ever before - While the Biden administration touts the success of the Inflation Reduction Act and its other clean energy accomplishments, a contradictory trend is quietly unfolding: The U.S. is exporting record-breaking amounts of liquefied natural gas. In April, the country sent more LNG abroad than in any other month, ever — a milestone that contrasts sharply with the global need to stop burning planet-warming fossil fuels. The rise in U.S. LNG exports has in turn helped drive an increase in global trade of the fuel, which last year rose to record-high volumes. Global LNG exports ticked up by 5 percent compared to 2021 levels. Meanwhile, U.S. export volumes jumped 16 percent over the same period — an increase that helped the U.S. tie with Qatar for the dubious achievement of the world’s top LNG exporter. The U.S.’ rising export volumes are in part the result of increased fossil gas production, which grew by 4 percent last year.The country’s growing LNG exports threaten not only its own goals for cutting carbon emissions but international climate targets as well. LNG operations create emissions — including via leaked methane, a very potent greenhouse gas — at nearly all points of production: the extraction of the gas itself, its transport via pipelines, the liquefaction operations and ultimately the end site where the gas is burned.Less than a decade ago, the U.S. exported virtually no LNG. But starting in February 2016, the lower 48 states began exporting the fuel when the country’s first liquefaction terminal, built by gas giant Cheniere, opened in Louisiana. The country’s shift from being a major fossil-fuel importer to its current role as a leading fossil-fuel exporter was only made possible by the hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” revolution, which leveraged novel drilling techniques to unlock massive amounts of cheap U.S. fossil gas. The U.S. shows no signs of slowing down its push to dominate global LNG exports. In fact, the country is currently building infrastructure that would boost its LNG export capacity by 5.7billion cubic feet per day by 2025, according to the Energy Information Administration. There are more than a dozen additional export terminals that have been approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, as well as a handful that have been proposed but not yet approved. The Environmental Integrity Project estimates that the new proposed LNG terminals alone could emit more greenhouse gases each year than 20 new coal-fired power plants.The expansion could also come at a significant cost to environmental justice. Residents living near the sites of the new liquefaction and export terminals have pushed back against the buildout, citing concerns about air and water pollution impacts on nearby communities of color and lower-income neighborhoods, especially in the Gulf Coast, where most of the development is concentrated. Canary Media visited a community impacted by a proposed LNGterminal in Florida last year and talked to community members about their fight against the project.As the U.S. attempts to lead the way on the global transition away from fossil fuels and to clean energy sources, the country’s rising prominence as a global LNG power broker could undermine those efforts.
USA LNG Cargoes Poised to Shift to Asian Ports LNG cargoes from the U.S. are poised to shift to Asian ports as prices fall in Europe, a new Rystad Energy gas and LNG market update, which was sent to Rigzone on Wednesday, stated. “Gas prices on the Netherlands-based Title Transfer Facility (TTF) fell 14 percent to around $9.4/MMBtu as of 11 July due to weak demand and healthy supply,” Rystad Energy Senior Analysts Masanori Odaka and Ade Allen said in the update. “In Asia, spot LNG prices are fluctuating around $11/MMBtu for August delivery as of 11 July, with the monthly average expected to settle at $12/MMBtu or slightly below. This has incentivized some players with U.S. free on board LNG cargoes to direct their LNG towards Asia rather than Europe,” they added. “However, finding Asian importers may be difficult as some countries still face high inventory, subject to demand fluctuation during summer,” the analysts continued. In the report, the analysts highlighted that spot LNG prices for northwest Europe delivery were about $8.9 per MMBtu on July 11, which they noted was 18 percent lower on the week. The analysts also pointed out that Europe continues to inject gas into storage, “with storage levels well above 2021 and 2022 for this time of the year”. “Storage facilities are currently 80.1 percent full at roughly 90.9 billion cubic meters, well positioned to reach the 90 percent target before November,” the analysts stated in the update. “The withdrawal rate is currently around 29.8 million cubic meters per day at an injection rate of 279 million cubic meters per day,” they added. The analysts noted in the update that, in the Asian spot LNG market, several sell tenders emerged from Indonesia’s Bontang LNG for September and October delivery, “with deadlines on 11 July”. “On the buy side, pockets of demand emerged from South Asia, while buying interest from East Asian importers remained limited despite strengthening downstream demand in some countries,” the analysts said in the update. “China and South Korea’s LNG inventories … stay high, prompting some importers to delay the delivery of cargoes. Higher than normal inventory levels in East Asia could dissuade major purchasers in Northeast Asia from spot market purchases,” they added. “At the time of writing on 12 July, players with U.S.-origin LNG cargoes are likely to bring their volumes to Asia rather than Europe as the arbitrage is open for September and October delivery, even when considering total shipping cost. Consequently, we will likely see more U.S.-origin LNG in Asia in the coming months,” the analysts continued. In a portion of the update penned by Allen alone, the Rystad analyst said U.S. LNG exports averaged 1.75 Mt last week but warned that the figure could be reduced this week “due to potential issues at Sabine Pass Train 3”. “We expect exports to average close to 13 billion cubic feet per day in July, barring unforeseen circumstances,” Allen said in the update. “Robust exports will be necessary to keep the market balanced, especially since production remains resilient,” Allen added.
Energy Transfer Enters into LNG Offtake Agreements for Lake Charles Project - Dallas-based Energy Transfer LP has entered into three long-term offtake liquefied natural gas (LNG) agreements for its Lakes Charles LNG project, the company said in a news release. The three non-binding heads of agreement (HOAs) combine for 3.6 million metric tons per annum (mtpa) of LNG to be exported to customers in Asia and the USA. The HOAs are subject to the negotiation and execution of definitive agreements, Energy Transfer said. The first HOA is with an unidentified Japanese consortium for the purchase of 1.6 mtpa for a 20-year term, subject to an option to convert the offtake arrangement to equity participation providing for the same volume of LNG, the news release said. The second HOA is for Chesapeake Energy Marketing LLC to supply Lakes Charles LNG with volumes of natural gas sufficient to produce 1.0 mtpa of LNG for 15 years, after which Gunvor Singapore Pte Ltd would buy LNG from Chesapeake at a price indexed to the Japan Korea Marker for a period of 15 years, according to the news release. The third HOA is with an unnamed USA customer and “relates to a tolling arrangement for 1.0 mtpa for a 15-year term”, Energy Transfer said. “We are pleased with the continued confidence of our customers in the Lake Charles LNG project”, Lake Charles LNG President Tom Mason said. “These HOAs are important for the successful development of the project, along with the continuation of certain pre-FID [final investment decision] work with one of our EPC [engineering, procurement, and construction] contractors.” The Lake Charles LNG project failed to meet the seven-year construction deadline of the USA Department of Energy (DOE) for LNG export permits. In May, the DOE denied Energy Transfer’s request for a three-year extension of the project, saying it did not meet its criteria for granting second extensions. The company requested a rehearing, and in June the DOE said it would not rehear the request, saying it was not convinced by the company’s arguments. Energy Transfer had sought the extension in part due to a variation in the design of the project to include a major carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) component, according to an earlier report from Reuters. According to the company website, the Lakes Charles project is for the development of a large-scale LNG export facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana located on the Calcasieu Ship Channel. The project will convert Energy Transfer’s existing Lake Charles LNG import and regasification terminal into an LNG export facility, “providing a cost advantage over other proposed LNG projects on the Gulf Coast”. The project is fully permitted for three 5.5 mtpa liquefaction trains, which will utilize existing infrastructure. The Lake Charles LNG import and regasification terminal has approximately 15.1 million cubic feet (430,000 cubic meters) of above-ground LNG storage capacity, two deepwater docks capable of handling ships with up to 7.66 million cubic feet (217,000 cubic meters) of capacity, and a deepwater turning basin, according to the company website.
Developer Confirms Funding For Massive Rio Grande Gas Terminal - After years of delays, an industrial developer said on Wednesday that it had funding to proceed with construction of a massive new gas liquefaction plant and export terminal in the wild green fields and wetlands of the Rio Grande delta. In an announcement, Houston-based NextDecade said it secured $5.9 billion in financing from international partners to begin work on the terminal’s first three compressors to liquify natural gas from Texas’ shale fields for export on global markets. When completed, five giant compressor units, each designed to process 5.4 million metric tons of liquified natural gas per year, will make the 750-acre Rio Grande LNG facility among the largest gas export terminals in the world. Its location in the Port of Brownsville-–the last major deepwater port in Texas that remains undeveloped by large fossil fuel projects—will complete the energy sector’s coastal sprawl from Louisiana to Mexico. Once constructed in several years, Rio Grande LNG will join the growing Gulf Coast energy export boom, which has pushed oil and gas production in Texas to record high levels. In the Wednesday announcement, NextDecade CEO Matt Schatzman called the financing agreement “a landmark event reflecting years of hard work and dedication by NextDecade’s employees, shareholders, construction partners, equipment suppliers, and customers.” Seven such LNG export terminals have cropped up on U.S. coastlines in the last eight years, according to the Energy Information Agency. Another three are under construction and another 11 have been approved by federal regulators. Accompanying the Rio Grande terminal, the planned Rio Bravo Pipeline will deliver 4.5 billion cubic feet of Permian gas per day to the South Texas coast, where compressor trains at Rio Grande LNG will super-cool the gas to -260 degrees Fahrenheit and then load it onto ocean-going tankers for sale overseas. The facility will occupy 750 acres of greenfield, including 182 acres of wetlands, on a 984-acre waterfront tract. Initially scheduled for completion in 2023, years long delays had plagued the project. Campaigns by local activists and indigenous leaders prompted three French banks, SMBC Group, BNP Paribas and Société Générale, to withdraw their financial commitments. Three nearby municipalities of Laguna Vista, South Padre Island and Port Isabel adopted resolutions opposing the project. A federal court ordered regulators to modify the conditions of their approval following challenges by local organizers who hoped to preserve the Rio Grande Delta as the last major inlet on the Gulf Coast of Texas still free from fossil fuel facilities like refineries, chemical plants and terminals.
US natgas prices rise 3% as hot weather boosts cooling demand (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures climbed about 3% to a one-week high on Monday on forecasts for hotter weather that should boost cooling demand more than previously expected through late July, especially in Texas. That price increase materialized even though drillers were pulling near record amounts of gas out of the ground. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's power grid operator, projected electricity use would reach new record highs on Tuesday and Thursday as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape the latest heat wave. The current record was hit on June 27. Extreme heat boosts the amount of gas generators burn to produce power for cooling, especially in Texas, which gets most of its electricity from gas-fired plants. In 2022, about 49% of the state's power came from gas-fired plants, with most of the rest from wind (22%), coal (16%), nuclear (8%) and solar (4%), according to federal energy data. Front-month gas futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange rose 8.7 cents, or 3.4%, to settle at $2.669 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their highest since July 3. Last week, speculators boosted their net long futures and options positions on the New York Mercantile and Intercontinental Exchanges to their highest levels since June 2022 for a third week in a row, according to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Commitments of traders report. Data provider Refinitiv said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states rose to 102.2 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in July, up from 100.9 bcfd in June. That is on track to top the monthly record high of 101.9 bcfd in May. Meteorologists forecast the weather in the Lower 48 states would turn hotter-than-normal through at least July 25. With higher temperatures coming, Refinitiv forecast U.S. gas demand, including exports, would rise from 103.0 bcfd this week to 107.1 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were similar to Refinitiv's outlook on Friday. Gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants rose to an average of 13.1 bcfd so far in July from 11.4 bcfd in June. That is still well below the monthly record of 14.0 bcfd in April due to ongoing maintenance at several facilities, including Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas.
US natgas prices drop 3% to three-week low as LNG feedgas remains low (Reuters) - U.S. natural gas futures fell about 3% to a three-week low on Thursday on some forecast for less hot weather and as the amount of gas flowing to the country's liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants remains low due to ongoing maintenance at some facilities. That price decline came despite a slightly smaller-than-expected storage build last week, another decline in daily output, and forecasts for the weather to remain mostly hot and cooling demand high through the end of July, especially in Texas. Power demand in Texas hit a record high on Wednesday, and is expected to top that on Thursday and Friday as homes and businesses keep their air conditioners cranked up to escape another brutal heat wave, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), the state's power grid operator. Extreme heat boosts the amount of gas generators burn to produce power for cooling, especially in Texas, which gets most of its electricity from gas-fired plants. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added 49 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended July 7. Analysts said that was lower than normal for this time of year because hotter-than-normal weather caused power generators to burn more gas to keep air conditioners humming. That was slightly lower than the 51-bcf analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an increase of 59 bcf in the same week last year and a five-year (2018-2022) average increase of 55 bcf. Front-month gas futures for August delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange fell 8.7 cents, or 3.3%, to settle at $2.545 per million British thermal units (mmBtu), their lowest since June 20. Data provider Refinitiv said average gas output in the U.S. Lower 48 states rose to 101.8 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) so far in July, up from 101.0 bcfd in June. That compares with a monthly record high of 101.8 bcfd in May. On a daily basis, however, output fell about 3.0 bcfd over the past six days to a preliminary two-week low of 99.7 bcfd on Wednesday due mostly to declines in Pennsylvania, Texas and North Dakota. Traders, however, noted preliminary data is often revised later in the day. Meteorologists forecast the weather in the Lower 48 states would remain hotter-than- normal through at least July 28. With hotter weather coming, Refinitiv forecast U.S. gas demand, including exports, would rise from 100.9 bcfd this week to 105.9 bcfd next week. Those forecasts were higher than Refinitiv's outlook on Wednesday. Gas flows to the seven big U.S. LNG export plants rose to an average of 12.7 bcfd so far in July from 11.6 bcfd in June. But, that is still well below the monthly record of 14.0 bcfd in April due to ongoing maintenance at several facilities, including Cheniere Energy Inc's Sabine Pass in Louisiana and Corpus Christi in Texas.
Has Texas Heat Affected Oil and Gas Operations? - Texas has been hot lately. Temperatures hit a maximum of 103F (39.44C) in the Midland-Odessa area of Texas on July 9, according to online weather data from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, which showed that the maximum temperature in the area was 98F (36.66C) on July 8, 96F (35.55C) on July 7, 97F (36.11C) on July 6, and 98F on July 5. When Rigzone asked the Texas Independent Producers and Royalty Owners Association (TIPRO) if the recent heat in Texas has been affecting oil and gas operations, the organization’s President, Ed Longanecker, said, “most operators we talked to did not experience any significant disruptions during extreme heat conditions”. Longanecker added, however, that “one operator said it was more difficult to operate at times compared to winter weather”. The TIPRO President also told Rigzone that “some producers mentioned that they experienced some challenges with equipment due to the heat, including compressors, electrical submersible pumps and propane refrigeration at a gas plant, which caused minor and temporary disruptions”. “Many crews were instructed to start an hour earlier in the day so they could shut down earlier in the afternoon to avoid so much of a duration in the extreme heat, to take more breaks, and hydrate,” Longanecker added. When Rigzone posed the same question to the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), an RRC spokesperson told Rigzone that “no disruptions in the supply of oil and natural gas have been reported related to the heat”. Rigzone also asked the Texas Oil and Gas Association (TXOGA) and the American Petroleum Institute (API) if the recent heat in Texas has been affecting oil and gas operations. At the time of writing, these organization have not yet responded to Rigzone. As of July 10, 03.58 CDT, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s National Weather Service website was transmitting 16 heat advisory alerts, one excessive heat warning alert, and two flood advisory alerts for Texas. According to the latest Texas oil and gas production statistics from the RRC, which were released in June and were for March this year, the preliminary reported total volume of crude oil in the state was 115.34 million barrels back in March. The preliminary reported total volume of natural gas in Texas during that month was 896.19 billion cubic feet, the RRC revealed last month. The top three Texas crude oil producing counties ranked by preliminary production in March 2023 were Midland, with 17.62 million barrels, Martin, with 15.35 million barrels, and Upton, with 7.522 million barrels, the RRC highlighted in its latest production statistics report. The top three Texas gas producing counties ranked by preliminary production in March were Reeves, with 84.45 billion cubic feet, Webb, with 79.80 billion cubic feet, and Midland, with 65.72 billion cubic feet, according to the RRC. The RRC highlighted in the report that these preliminary figures are based on production volumes reported by operators and noted that they will be updated as late and corrected production reports are received.
Exxon in $4.9B Denbury Deal | Rigzone - Exxon Mobil Corporation has announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Denbury Inc. (NYSE: DEN), which it describes as an experienced developer of carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCS) solutions and enhanced oil recovery. In a statement posted on its site, Exxon noted that the acquisition is an all-stock transaction valued at $4.9 billion, or $89.45 per share based on ExxonMobil’s closing price on July 12. Under the terms of the agreement, Denbury shareholders will receive 0.84 shares of ExxonMobil for each Denbury share, Exxon highlighted in the statement. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, which is subject to customary regulatory reviews and approvals, Exxon said in the statement, adding that it is also subject to approval by Denbury shareholders. The deal is expected to close in the 4th quarter of this year. Exxon noted in the statement that the transaction synergies are expected to drive strong growth and returns for the company. The company said in the statement that its acquisition of Denbury provides it with the largest owned and operated CO2 pipeline network in the U.S. at 1,300 miles, “as well as 10 strategically located onshore sequestration sites”. A cost-efficient transportation and storage system accelerates CCS deployment for ExxonMobil and third-party customers over the next decade and underpins multiple low carbon value chains including CCS, hydrogen, ammonia, biofuels, and direct air capture, Exxon noted in the statement. Exxon highlighted that the acquisition also includes Gulf Coast and Rocky Mountain oil and natural gas operations. The company outlined in the statement that these operations consist of proved reserves totaling over 200 million barrels of oil equivalent, “with 47,000 oil-equivalent barrels per day of current production, providing immediate operating cash flow and near-term optionality for CO2 offtake and execution of the CCS business”. “Acquiring Denbury reflects our determination to profitably grow our Low Carbon Solutions business by serving a range of hard-to-decarbonize industries with a comprehensive carbon capture and sequestration offering,” Darren Woods, the Chairman and CEO of Exxon, said in a company statement.“The breadth of Denbury’s network, when added to ExxonMobil’s decades of experience and capabilities in CCS, gives us the opportunity to play an even greater role in a thoughtful energy transition, as we continue to deliver on our commitment to provide the world with the vital energy and products it needs,” he added.
Fossil fuel workers are dying inhaling gases – despite US warnings to big oil - Jeff Springman climbed the metal stairs on an oil storage tank at a production site in west Texas and opened the small hatch at the top. He was going to test the fluid in the tank before pumping it into his truck, a practice known as manual gauging. Instead he was engulfed by invisible chemicals that had built up inside. Springman passed out. A man he was training on the job that day in October 2019, Greg Fausto, caught him from falling several feet to the ground below, according to both men. When Springman came to, he saw that his gas monitor was beeping with a reading showing that the concentration of gas in the air had reached a flammable level. He had a nosebleed and felt nauseous. “My mouth was caked with some kind of weird film,” Springman said. “Everything was just wrong.”Springman, who was working for an oil and gas transport company called Pilot Transportation, hauling oil for Diamondback Energy, finished the job that day with Fausto’s help, but since then his health has deteriorated. He has cardiac arrhythmia, a known side effect of breathing in hydrocarbon gases, as well as nervous system damage.He has a blood clot in his lung that cannot be treated with blood thinners because of his ongoing gastrointestinal bleeding, according to medical records viewed by Drilled. “There’s nothing they can do for me,” Springman said. “If the blood clot leaves my lung and goes to my brain, I’m done.”He’s not alone. After multiple worker fatalities related to manual gauging, the US government warned that the practice was dangerous. There were nine incidents of workers dying from inhaling gases while gauging tanks between 2010 and 2014, according to two government agencies. All of the workers died alone. Most of their bodies were found slumped over thief hatches at the top of storage tanks. But the oil industry seems not to have taken note. Since 2016, at least a dozen more workers have died as a result of manual gauging, though some experts think that is likely to be an undercount. Sharon Wilson, a longtime environmental advocate who researches methane emissions, says she still sees workers manually gauging tanks in Texas all the time.Wilson carries an optical gas imaging camera capable of viewing emissions coming off tanks, meaning she can see the gases that workers cannot. “When I see a worker opening a thief hatch” – the name for the hatch on top of a tank – “it can look like a volcano erupts”, as hydrocarbon gases spew forth. “It’s terrifying because I know when I see a worker walking up the stairs, I know what they’re gonna do and I know that I could sit there on the side of the road and watch a worker die.”
EPA Fines Callon Petroleum Unit $1.3MM for Emissions Violations - The USA Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has fined Callon Petroleum subsidiary Callon Permian LLC roughly $1.3 million for excess emissions at the company’s oil and gas facilities in the West Texas Permian Basin, according to a statement from the agency on Thursday. The EPA detected emissions from tanks, flares, and other equipment using a helicopter equipped with a special infrared camera that detects hydrocarbon leaks. Callon Permian failed to comply with requirements for flares, tanks, and combustors, as well as general requirements of the federally approved Texas State Implementation Plan, the agency said. In a consent agreement and final order issued by the EPA, Callon Permian is required to do site-specific corrective actions, inspections, equipment upgrades, and permitting and operations reviews. The settlement also requires the company to conduct optical gas imaging surveys at each of its facilities, tank pressure monitoring, and combustion control device monitoring to ensure future compliance. According to the statement, Callon Permian will perform corrective actions at 13 of the company’s oil and gas facilities in the West Texas Permian Basin, resulting in an estimated reduction of over 1.2 million pounds of volatile organic compound emissions, which “contribute to the formation of ozone (smog), which can result in health problems such as asthma, lung infections, bronchitis, and cancer”, the EPA said. The settlement will also reduce an estimated 4.6 million pounds of methane emissions. “This settlement will help protect residents of the Permian Basin from hazardous emissions and sends a strong message to facilities in the area that violate the health standards outlined in the Clean Air Act”, EPA Regional Administrator Earthea Nance said. “By using state-of-the-art technology and helicopter surveillance, we are able to detect these hazardous emissions over a large geographic area. EPA will continue to deliver cleaner air for communities by holding companies accountable through enforcement and compliance.”
Study: Domestic oil and gas production responsible for $77 billion in health impacts yearly - Oil and gas production have long been a cornerstone of the Texas economy, often seen as an aspect of the state’s identity. But the industry has long faced criticism, as well, particularly as climate change continues to be a growing concern.While the environmental cost remains a prominent target for those doing the critiquing, a new study has given us the numbers behind the human cost of the oil and gas industry – particularly as it relates to health.A joint study by the Boston University School of Public Health, the University of North Carolina Institute for the Environment, PSE Healthy Energy and the Environmental Defense Fund has found air pollution from domestic oil and gas production to be responsible for about $77 billion in health impacts nationwide every year, with Texas among the states with the highest proportion of associated health damages.Lead researcher Jonathan Buonocore, assistant professor of environmental health at Boston University’s School of Public Health, joined Texas Standard to discuss the report’s findings. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:
Biden administration announces $650 million to plug orphaned gas and oil wells --The Interior Department announced Monday more than $650 million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding to plug abandoned oil and gas wells. The $660 million in funding, available to 27 states, will go toward the plugging of so-called orphan wells, or wells abandoned for extraction by the oil and gas industry. Orphan wells are associated with major safety and health hazards, many of them associated with methane leaks. Methane is also a major driver of climate change, due to its capacity to trap more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide. The Environmental Defense Fund estimates about 14 million Americans live within a mile of an orphaned well. Separate research indicates such infrastructure particularly affects communities of color, which because of the practice of redlining host a disproportionate amount of urban gas and oil wells. “These investments are good for our climate, for the health of our communities, and for American workers,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in remarks Monday in Kansas with Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kan.). “With this additional funding, states will put more people to work to clean up these toxic sites, reduce methane emissions and safeguard our environment.”
States struggle to plug oil wells with infrastructure law cash - — Across Schuyler Wight’s two West Texas ranches, about 250 abandoned oil and gas wells sit open and unused, creating a link from the dusty surface to smelly chemicals and gases thousands of feet underground. Some of the wells are constantly bringing up noxious liquid, creating poisonous puddles and pools across Schuyler’s land that have killed cattle. Other wells bubble with methane, releasing the greenhouse gas silently into the air. “Over time with these wells, the casing rusts, they get pipes stuck. There’s caverns that form, there’s all kinds of crazy things that can happen,” Schuyler said. “It’s an expensive process to go out there and fix those once things get too old.” There may be as many as 800,000 orphaned wells across the country, according to some estimates. In 2021, states reported 126,806 to the Department of Interior, although many experts say that number vastly understates the problem. Along with being eyesores, the wells may be polluting groundwater and are estimated to be the 10th largest source of methane emissions in the U.S., according to a study by McGill University in Canada. The bipartisan infrastructure law signed into law in November 2021 included $4.7 billion in federal grants to start plugging the wells, creating new programs in many states. But the new federal money is creating logistical and regulatory challenges, state officials told E&E News, raising many questions about whether the money will live up to its promise. Some officials say they are having a hard time finding enough crews to plug the wells under the timelines dictated by the federal funds, and available workers are charging higher prices than originally anticipated. State counts in some of the most prolific oil states are lower than expected, raising concerns about whether the money is flowing to where it’s most needed. State agencies need to create methods for prioritizing which wells should be plugged. Many orphaned wells also remain undiscovered, putting pressure on states to develop new methods for finding and plugging them.
EIA Reveals Latest Oil Price Forecasts | Rigzone - The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) has revealed its latest Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil price forecasts in the July edition of its short-term energy outlook (STEO). According to the July STEO, the EIA now sees the Brent spot price averaging $79.34 per barrel in 2023 and $83.51 per barrel in 2024, and the WTI spot price averaging $74.43 per barrel this year and $78.51 per barrel next year. The latest price projections reflect very little movement compared to the EIA’s June STEO, which saw the Brent spot price coming in at $79.54 per barrel in 2023 and $83.51 per barrel in 2024, and the WTI spot price averaging $74.60 per barrel in 2023 and $78.51 per barrel next year. In a quarterly price breakdown included in the latest STEO, the EIA highlighted that the Brent spot price averaged $81.04 per barrel in the first quarter of this year and $78.02 per barrel in the second quarter, while the WTI spot price averaged $75.96 per barrel in the first quarter and $73.49 per barrel in the second quarter. Looking further ahead, the latest STEO projected that the Brent spot price would average $78.32 per barrel in the third quarter of this year, $79.97 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $81.98 per barrel in the first quarter of next year, $83 per barrel in the second quarter of next year, $84 per barrel in the third quarter of 2024, and $85 per barrel in the fourth quarter. The EIA’s July STEO anticipated that the WTI spot price would come in at $73.32 per barrel in the third quarter of 2023, $74.97 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $76.98 per barrel in the first quarter of next year, $78 per barrel in the second quarter of 2024, $79 per barrel in the third quarter of next year, and $80 per barrel in the fourth quarter. “The Brent crude oil spot price in our forecast gradually increases in the coming months, reflecting our expectation that global oil inventories will decline,” the EIA stated in its July STEO. “The Brent price averaged $75 per barrel in June, unchanged from May, as ongoing concerns regarding weakening global economic conditions continued to limit expectations for global oil demand growth, which countered upward price pressure from tighter near-term oil supplies,” the EIA added. “The reduction in expected near-term oil supplies was the result of the OPEC+ extended crude oil production cuts announced on June 4 and an extension of voluntary cuts through August announced by Saudi Arabia on July 3. We expect the production cuts and rising demand to increase prices going forward,” the EIA continued. In a report sent to Rigzone this week, Standard Chartered projected that the ICE Brent price would come in at $91 per barrel this year and $98 per barrel in 2024. The company expects the NYMEX WTI price to be $88 per barrel this year and $95 per barrel next year, according to the report, which also included a quarterly price breakdown. Brent is anticipated to come in at $88 per barrel in the third quarter of this year, $93 per barrel in the fourth quarter, $92 per barrel in the first quarter of next year, $94 per barrel in the second quarter of 2024, $98 per barrel in the third quarter of 2024, and $106 per barrel in the fourth quarter of next year, the report showed.
California new oil well approvals have nearly ground to a halt (Reuters) - California, the seventh-biggest U.S. crude oil producer, has put a near halt on issuing permits for new drilling this year, according to state data. The state's Geologic Energy Management Division, known as CalGEM, has approved seven new active well permits in 2023. That compares with the more than 200 it had issued by this time last year. The stalled approvals represent the latest tension between California's bold environmental ambitions and its role as a major oil and gas producer and consumer. New drilling permits have steadily declined since Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019, but the current rate of approval represents a sudden and dramatic drop. "It's just fallen off the cliff," Rock Zierman, chief executive of the California Independent Petroleum Association (CIPA), said in an interview. The industry has more than 1,400 permit applications for new wells awaiting CalGEM approval, half of which are more than a year old, he said. In an email, CalGEM attributed the smaller number of approvals to both the broader decline in California oil production and litigation that has paused permitting by Kern County, the center of the state's oil industry. CalGEM is processing far more approvals to permanently close wells than for any other activity, the agency said. "We expect this permitting trend to continue as California transitions away from fossil fuels," CalGEM said.
Big Oil’s Radical Proposal: Curtail Consumption, Not Production --Last year, in the middle of an energy crunch, European governments called on their citizens to consume less energy. They also lashed out at Big Oil for making billions from the squeeze.Now, Big Oil is the one calling for a reduction in energy consumption. Essentially, supermajors have suggested that people should use less of their products. But they don’t want to slash production.The seemingly paradoxical message came out earlier this week from a conference in Vienna, where OPEC leaders met with their Big Oil counterparts from BP, Shell, and other oil companies to discuss the future of global energy.As might have been expected in this day and age, the message to come out of the gathering was that everyone is committed to a net-zero world in the future but that right now, everyone was committed to ensuring there is enough energy for those who need it, regardless of the source.What was, perhaps, less expected was the reported call from Big Oil for governments to focus on demand reduction rather than supply limitation as a means of enabling that net-zero world. OPEC officials, meanwhile, focused on the importance of energy security as they have done before.“We must do everything we can to reduce emissions, not to reduce energy,” OPEC secretary-general, Haitham al Ghais said, as quoted by Euronews. “There is a misconception going around about reducing production and reducing investment in oil and gas, we do not agree with that message.”One would assume the reason OPEC disagrees with this message is that it would lead to lower profits for its members. But according to Big Oil, the motive for switching from a focus on supply to one on demand will avoid even higher profits for oil producers. Not that the executives put it quite this way.The report on that call comes from Reuters, which was once again refused access to the conference but quoted sources present there. And that call follows statements made by Big Oil executives that they will slow down with their pivot away from their core business.From an activist perspective, Big Oil is trying to justify its renewed focus on oil and gas at a time when oil and gas are making record profits. From an energy security perspective, it is difficult to argue that reducing the supply of a commodity while leaving demand unchanged could only have one result: a sharp rise in the price of that commodity.Of course, there is a case to be made that right now, despite stable and growing demand for oil, prices are depressed—but this is because factors different from oil’s fundamentals are running the show, as it were. These factors include GDP growth in big consumers, inflation, and central bank monetary policy. But there is also the perception that there is an abundant supply of oil that has contributed to the pressure on prices. So, what Big Oil executives are basically saying is that governments—and activists—have got the wrong end of the stick: they are trying to reduce the supply of oil and gas without addressing demand. And that is an approach that is doomed to failure, as we saw last year when the same governments that berated Big Oil for its profits subsidized the consumption of Big Oil’s products to avoid riots on their hands. Meanwhile, at another recent event, other Big Oil executives dared speak a truth that few leaders in the West would even acknowledge in private. That truth amounts to the fact that oil and gas are going nowhere in the next few decades, no matter what green transition plans governments are making. “We think the biggest realization that should come out of this conference … is oil and gas are needed for decades to come,” is how Hess Corp.’s John Hess put it. “Energy transition is going to take a lot longer, it’s going to cost a lot more money and need new technologies that don’t even exist today.”Naturally, this would be a welcome opportunity for a climate advocate to argue that Big Oil is trying to save its bacon when the world is turning vegan, but even that climate advocate would be hard-pressed to explain why, if the world’s moving away from hydrocarbons, China is building coal plants and India is building refineries.The truth is that the world is not moving away from hydrocarbons. Demand for oil has hit 102 million barrels daily. Demand for gas is soaring, too, notably from transition poster continent Europe. U.S. oil consumption is also growing after a drop in 2020—the lockdown year.There may be something, then, in a call for addressing demand for oil and gas instead of calling for less production. But addressing demand with a view to essentially discouraging it will be tricky—and also highly unpopular among voters. Germany is a good example worth studying by other transition-minded countries. It shows that forcing the transition down people’s throats does not usually yield the expected results.
IEA trims oil demand forecast for the first time this year on 'persistent' economic headwinds - The International Energy Agency on Thursday cut its global oil demand growth forecast for the first time this year, primarily citing a worsening economic outlook that weighs “especially heavy” on wealthy countries. The world’s leading energy watchdog said global oil demand is now on track to climb by 2.2 million barrels per day in 2023 to reach an average of 102.1 million barrels per day. China is set to account for 70% of the demand growth increase, the IEA said. This forecast nevertheless represents a downward revision of 220,000 barrels per day from last month’s report, when the IEA predicted an increase of 2.4 million barrels per day of worldwide growth. “Persistent macroeconomic headwinds, apparent in a deepening manufacturing slump, have led us to revise our 2023 growth estimate lower for the first time this year,” the IEA said in its latest monthly oil market report released on Thursday. “World oil demand is coming under pressure from the challenging economic environment, not least because of the dramatic tightening of monetary policy in many advanced and developing countries over the past twelve months,” the agency added. Looking ahead to next year, the IEA expects demand growth to slow to 1.1 million barrels per day, “as the recovery loses momentum and as ever-greater vehicle fleet electrification and efficiency measures take hold.” The IEA last month said that global demand will trickle nearly to a halt in the coming years and peak before the end of the decade as the transition away from fossil fuels gathers pace. The Thursday report comes at a time when recent U.S. inflation and economic data renewed hopes that the Federal Reserve may be closing in on an end to its rate hiking cycle. Oil prices traded slightly higher on Thursday morning, extending gains month-to-date. Brent crude futures with September expiry were up around 0.4% at $80.42 a barrel at around 9 a.m. London time, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures with August delivery rose 0.3% to trade at $75.98 a barrel.
Investigations continue into source of oil spill {carlow-nationalist.ie} THE source of an oil spill into the River Slaney in Tullow has yet to be identified.Council official confirmed last week that despite increasing the number of absorbent booms and ongoing investigations in the area, the source remains a mystery.At the July meeting of Carlow County Council, cllr John McDonald asked for an update on the oil spill in Tullow; however, director of services Padraig O’Gorman indicated that the search for the source continues.South of Tullow, the oil has been visible across the surface of the River Slaney for a number of weeks, causing serious concern among the public, particularly for local fishermen and farmers. The council has urged members of the public to support them in the search for the source and thanked the people of Tullow for their support to date, adding that manholes and back gardens in numerous private homes and businesses in the area have been examined as part of the search.
Protests over fracking rig in Northern Territory -- The most powerful on-shore drilling rig in Australia is believed to be on its way to the Beetaloo Basin despite protests in Darwin. A woman locked herself to a gate outside the city's port on Friday in a bid to stop Tamboran Resources moving the rig to the drill site. In a video posted online, Kat McNamara said she would prefer not to take such action to stop fracking in the Territory. "I'm here because I feel morally obliged to be here," she said. "If we don't act now, we are going to find ourselves in a situation that we can't come back from and we're going to wish people had done things like this. "We know that the community stands with us, the science stands with us." However, the GetUp organisation said four trucks carrying the rig had since left the port. About 500 kilometres southeast of Darwin, the Beetaloo Basin contains an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of gas, making it one of Australia's most energy resource-rich areas. While fracking for gas in Australia has been used in coal seams in the past two decades, shale fracking - which is done much deeper below the surface - is yet to be trialled. After a recent Senate inquiry into activities in the basin, Tamboran said it was pleased its "activities in the NT have been shown to be beyond reproach". In May the NT government also lifted its five-year moratorium on fracking. But environmental, Indigenous and some farming groups remain concerned about the impacts of unconventional mining operations, particularly on groundwater reserves. Tamboran had no comment in relation to Friday's protest or the movement of the rig. It previously welcomed its arrival, saying it was expected to deliver significant improvements in drilling efficiency and horsepower. "Once operational, this onshore drilling rig will be the most powerful rig in Australia, capable of drilling more than 3000m horizontal sections," managing director and chief executive Joel Riddle said. NT police was at the port protest but said no arrests were made.
Nigeria flares $3.9b gas in four years amid pollution, revenue leakage concerns— Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Shell, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total and other oil companies operating in the country flared about $3.9 billion (about N3 trillion) worth of gas in the last four years, despite growing environmental concerns and revenue leakages in the nation’s petroleum industry. Although the companies pledged commitment to environmental sustainability and climate change, their operations have left Nigeria with 1.2 trillion standard cubic feet of gas with expected carbon dioxide emissions of 65.9 million tonnes. At a time when the government is borrowing at least N11 trillion to fund the 2023 budget, the gas flare alone, if monetised, could provide almost 30 per cent of the needed budget. With many elusive targets to end gas flaring in the Niger Delta, statistics provided by the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) and the Gas Flaring Tracker satellite of the World Bank puts the volume of gas flared in 2022 at 224.9 billion standard cubic feet (SCF), which translates to $787.2 million The gas flared in 2021 was 260.3 billion SCF, which translates to about $911 million; in 2020, 260 billion cubic feet of gas was flared, which was about $909 million. In 2019, 466 bscf of gas was flared, translating to about $1.7 billion. The gas flared by the companies in four years is equivalent to about 128,500 gigawatts of electricity in a country that is struggling with gas to power about 80 per cent of electricity generation plants. In 2022, the worth of gas flared could generate 22,500 gigawatts hour of electricity (GWh). Coming at a time the Federal Government is championing a decade of gas, National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), auto-gas policy, zero gas flare target and others, Nigeria’s gas flare, though reducing slowly, fails to hit projected targets on the backdrop of poor infrastructure and funding despite the leeway in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). Besides, concerns are rising that most operators are under-reporting gas flare figures to evade fines after the country’s latest regulations changed the penalty for gas flaring to $2 per 1,000 standard cubic feet of gas. Nigeria has the largest gas reserves in Africa, hovering around 209 trillion standard cubic feet. The ‘2022 Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report’ of the World Bank showed that Nigeria ranked seventh on the list of top 10 countries involved in gas flaring in 2021. Combined with the pollution from oil production, the World Bank estimated that around two million people in Nigeria live less than four kilometres away from a flare site, a development which poses danger to their lives, especially those of children. Many attempts to bridge the gap in flaring over the years have been elusive as pronouncements by government officials and policymakers are often not taken seriously.
PCG eyes 2 ships as source of Southern Leyte spill — The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has started investigating two ships that could have been responsible for an oil spill that damaged the coastal areas of San Ricardo town in Southern Leyte. Lt. Comdr. Donna Liza Duran, PCG Southern Leyte station commander, said they took oil samples from LCT Georgia-1 and MV San Ric Ferry 20, both of which were docked in a private port in Barangay Benit of the town when the spill was spotted on July 7. LCT Georgia-1 is a cargo ship while MV San Ric Ferry 20 is an interisland passenger vessel that plies the route between San Ricardo and Surigao City. According to Duran, the Marine Environmental Protection Group of the Southern Leyte Coast Guard station, together with barangay officials and residents, immediately conducted manual scooping and shoreline cleanup to get rid of the oil slick. “We already took samples of the oils that spilled in the sea on Friday and will match these to the oil from the two ships so we can determine where they came from,” Duran said on Monday. The oil spill, which was reported by residents of Barangay Benit on Friday morning, had spread about 500 meters from the shore of the village. “There’s no need to panic because the spilled oil was already contained, including those left in the debris and stones at the shoreline,” she said. As of Sunday, authorities already used 100 pieces of absorbent pads to contain the oil spill. Duran advised residents not to fish at this time for safety purposes.
Yemen: Transfer of oil from decaying ship expected to start next week— Carrying over 1.1 million barrels of oil, the supertanker FSO Safer was abandoned off Yemen’s Red Sea port of Hudaydah after the civil war broke out in the country in 2015. Since then, the vessel has deteriorated significantly in absence of any servicing or maintenance, prompting fears of a major environmental disaster. According to David Gressly, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, the vessel Nautica is preparing to sail from Djibouti. It will moor alongside the Safer and once the transfer starts, it will take about two weeks. “The completion of the ship-to-ship transfer of the oil by the start of August will be a moment when the whole world can heave a sigh of relief,” Mr. Gressly said, adding that the “worst-case humanitarian, environmental and economic catastrophe from a massive oil spill will have been prevented.” After the oil has been off-loaded, the next critical step will include delivery and installment of a catenary anchor leg mooring (CALM) buoy, which is secured to the seabed, and to which the replacement vessel will safely be installed. The CALM buoy needs to be in place by September. Backed by generous funding from Member States, the private sector, and the general public, which contributed $300,000 through a crowdfunding campaign, UN raised about $118 million of the $148 million estimated budget for the undertaking. The broad coalition working to prevent the catastrophe also includes environmental groups, including Greenpeace and, in Yemen, Holm Akhdar; as well as several UN entities.
Saudi energy minister says latest Riyadh-Moscow oil cuts showed unity with Russia -- The latest round of voluntary crude oil output cuts evidence the cooperation between heavyweight producers and allies Russia and Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said on Wednesday. On Monday, Saudi Arabia said it would extend the 1-million-barrel-per-day production cut it had initially flagged for July into August, while Russia announced a 500,000 barrel-per-day decline in exports next month. This adds to the just over 1.66 million-barrels-per-day of voluntary drops that some members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies — known as OPEC+ — had first declared in April, then agreed to stretch until the end of 2024 during the coalition’s ministerial meeting of June. Unlike alliance-wide OPEC+ policy decisions, voluntary production declines do not require unanimous approval and need not be implemented by all group members. Addressing the latest Riyadh-Moscow drops agreed for August at an OPEC+ seminar in Vienna Wednesday, Prince Abdulaziz said: “In the last move this week, yes, we are all continuing with our voluntary cut, but again, part of what we have had done with our colleagues from Russia was also to mitigate the cynical side of spectators about what was going on with Saudi Arabia and Russia.” Some questions had surfaced over the extent to which Russia will be honoring its voluntary crude production decline pledges, given ongoing opacity over its refinery consumption and seaborne exports — which are no longer accepted in Europe since December and have been rerouted to Asia. The Russian administration has suspended publishing official statistics for oil, natural gas and gas condensate production until April 2024, according to Russian state news agency Tass. Implementing a cut on exports, rather than on output, will allow market participants who rely on independent third-party tracking data to verify the extent to which Russia stands by its commitments. “It was a voluntary cut that was not imposed on them … including delivering, that they will do it from their exports, because it is more meaningful,” Abdulaziz said Wednesday.
Oil Lower as China's Faded Recovery Overshadow OPEC+ Cuts -- Following a three-session rally, oil futures settled Monday's session lower as market participants look to a twofold risk to the demand outlook in China and the United States, where a softening labor market and faded post-pandemic recovery have undermined prospects of lower crude supplies from the OPEC+ alliance. Monday's move lower in the oil complex comes as traders once again shifted their focus to weak demand signals out of China -- the world's largest crude-oil importer, where the economy struggles to pick up momentum after nearly three years of rolling lockdowns. China's inflation data released overnight revealed the producer price index slid deep into negative territory last month at –5.4% rate from a year ago, meaning demand for Chinese manufactured goods is lagging far behind last year's levels. Globally, manufacturing has remained in recession for nearly a year under pressure from rising interest rates across Western economies and demand rotation from goods-producing sectors into services. China is an export-oriented economy that requires sustained demand for its manufacturing industries which is far from certain in an environment of geopolitical tensions and de-coupling from Western economies. Domestically, investors await the release of the consumer price index for June, scheduled for publication at 8:30 AM ET Wednesday, with expectations for inflation to have eased amid a continued retreat in energy and food prices. The Survey of Inflation Expectations released this afternoon from the New York Federal Reserve showed that Americans anticipate short-term inflation will fall to the lowest level in just over two years at 3.8% compared to 4.1% expected in May. The longer-term inflation outlook, however, picked up pace slightly, with inflation projected three years ahead rising to 3% from May's 2.7% reading. The Federal Reserve inflation target is 2%. The easing short-term inflation outlook in the United States could finally be driven by a softening labor market, with Friday's employment report showing employers added the fewest number of monthly jobs in June since late 2020. The headline employment number for June was 209,000, with most of the job gains concentrated in sectors of government, social assistance, and health care. The categories associated with post-pandemic job creations, including leisure and hospitality along with professional services, showed little change from the prior month. What's more, employment for both May and April were also revised lower, with average job growth over the two-month period now 110,000 lower than previously reported. These data points bode well for the Federal Reserve's efforts to cool the labor market and broader economy for over a year now with the most aggressive rate hiking campaign in decades. Investors in financial markets upped their bets that the central bank would not have to raise the federal funds rate much higher from the current 5% to 5.25% target range. Still, more than 92% of investors anticipate the Fed would lift rates by another 25 basis points during their July 26 meeting, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. At settlement, the U.S. dollar index retreated against a basket of foreign currencies to finish at 101.642. NYMEX August West Texas Intermediate futures declined to $72.99, down $0.87 bbl on the session. ICE September Brent crude fell back $0.78 to $77.69 bbl. NYMEX August RBOB futures dropped $0.0197 to $2.5696 gallon, and August ULSD futures softened $0.0059 to $2.5532 gallon.
Oil dips 1% on US interest rate fears but OPEC+ cuts limit decline - Oil prices eased 1% on Monday on the increasing likelihood of more U.S. interest rate hikes, but crude supply cuts from top oil exporters Saudi Arabia and Russia limited the losses. Brent crude futures settled down 78 cents, or 1%, at $77.69 a barrel after touching their highest level in more than two months earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude fell 87 cents, or 1.2%, at $72.99. "Traders are very nervous about higher interest rates, which could kill demand very quickly," adding that some investors were also engaging in profit-taking after last week's gains. Both benchmarks rose more than 4.5% last week after Saudi Arabia and Russia announced fresh output cuts bringing total reductions by the OPEC+ group to around 5 million barrels per day (bpd), or about 5% of global oil demand. San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly on Monday repeated that she believes two more rate hikes this year will likely be needed to bring down inflation that is still too high, while Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester also signaled more rate rises. Higher interest rates could slow economic growth and reduce oil demand. The U.S. Labor Department reported last Friday the smallest monthly job gain in 2-1/2 years along with strong wage growth. The data strengthened the likelihood that the Fed would raise interest rates at its meeting later this month. Meanwhile, China's factory gate prices fell at the fastest pace in more than seven years in June, according to government data, indicating a slowdown in the recovery in the world's second-largest economy. However, oil demand from China and developing countries, combined with OPEC+ supply cuts, is likely to keep the market tight in the second half of the year despite a sluggish global economy, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. Markets are also focusing on the release of U.S. Consumer Price Index data, a key inflation report, and a slew of economic reports from China later this week to ascertain demand.
The Oil Market on Tuesday Continued on its Upward Trend as it Remained Supported by the Supply Cuts --The oil market on Tuesday continued on its upward trend as it remained supported by the supply cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia for August and hopes for higher demand in the second half of the year, as China said it will take more steps to revive its economy with additional stimulus. The market was supported amid indications that Russian crude oil production is declining. Bloomberg reported that the average shipments of Russian crude have declined below their February averages. The oil market opened higher and sold off to a low of $72.98 in overnight trading before it bounced higher and breached its previous high. The extended its gains to over $1.60 and posted a high of $74.96 ahead of the close. The oil market was also well supported by the weakness in the dollar, as it fell to a two-month low after several Federal Reserve officials on Monday signaled the central bank was near the end of its tightening cycle. The August WTI contract settled up $1.84 at $74.83 and the September Brent contract settled up $1.71 at $79.40. The product markets remained supported, with the heating oil market settling up 3.05 cents at $2.5837 and the RB market settling up 5.31 cents at $2.6227. The EIA raised its 2023 world oil demand growth forecast by 170,000 bpd to 1.76 million bpd and cut its oil demand growth estimate for 2024 by 60,000 bpd to 1.64 million bpd. Total world oil demand in 2023 is forecast to increase to 101.16 million barrels and to 102.8 million barrels in 2024. World oil output is expected to increase by 1.25 million bpd to 101.1 million bpd in 2023 and increase by 1.47 million bpd to 102.57 million bpd. It reported that OPEC production is forecast to fall by 650,000 bpd to 28.02 million bpd in 2023 and increase by 470,000 bpd to 28.49 million bpd in 2024. U.S. oil output is forecast to increase by 670,000 bpd to 12.56 million bpd in 2023 and increase by 290,000 bpd to 12.85 million bpd in 2024. The EIA also reported that U.S. petroleum demand in 2023 is forecast to increase by 160,000 bpd to 20.44 million bpd and by 350,000 bpd to 20.79 million bpd in 2024. U.S. gasoline demand is forecast to increase by 140,000 bpd in 2023 to 8.92 million bpd and by 10,000 bpd to 8.93 million bpd in 2024, while U.S. distillate demand is expected to fall by 50,000 bpd to 3.91 million bpd in 2023 and increase by 50,000 bpd to 3.96 million bpd in 2024. The EIA forecast that the Brent crude price will average $78/barrel in July and gradually increase to about $80/barrel in the fourth quarter. The price of Brent crude is expected to average about $84/barrel in 2024. OPEC’s Secretary General, Haitham Al Ghais, said global energy demand is forecast to increase by 23% through 2045. Saudi Arabia’s cabinet reaffirmed the country’s desire to increase precautionary efforts by OPEC and their allies to stabilize oil markets. JP Morgan said OPEC+ needs to deepen its cuts by another 700,000 bpd in the second half of 2023 in addition to the announced reductions. It said the 700,000 bpd addition cut would need to be extended into 2024 in order to offset both non-OPEC supply growth and increasing output from some non-core OPEC members.
WTI Rallies 2.5% on USD Weakness Ahead of Inventory Report -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures and Brent crude traded on the Intercontinental Exchange powered higher during the afternoon session Tuesday, lifting front-month West Texas Intermediate to the highest settlement since early May propelled by expectations for U.S. commercial crude oil inventories to have declined for a fourth consecutive week, while a sharp drop in the U.S. dollar further boosted the oil complex. The U.S. dollar index extended losses on Tuesday to the lowest level since May 11 at 101.335 as investors positioned ahead of June's inflation report in the United States, scheduled for an 8:30 AM ET Wednesday release. Economists widely expect headline inflation to have declined for the 12th consecutive month in June, dropping from May's 4% reading to 3.1%. If realized, this would mark the lowest reading since March 2021. The core consumer price index, which excludes energy and food prices, is also seen to have retreated to 5% from a decades-high 6.4% led by a gradual but slow easing of housing prices. Further pressuring the U.S. dollar, Friday's employment report for the month of June revealed U.S. employers added the fewest number of jobs since late 2020, with job gains mostly driven by the government and healthcare services. Combination of easing inflation and a softening labor market might suggest that the Fed's efforts to cool the economy with the most aggressive rate hiking campaign in decades is finally bearing results. As of Tuesday afternoon, the majority of investors still expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates by 0.25% on July 26 to a 5.25% by 5.5% target range. However, bets for further rate hikes in September and November are quickly fading. Oil is bought and sold around the world in U.S. dollars, therefore a cheaper greenback makes crude more attractive for foreign buyers. On the session, West Texas Intermediate for August delivery advanced $1.84 or 2.5% to $74.83 bbl and international crude benchmark September Brent contract rallied to $79.40 bbl, up $1.71 bbl on the session, with both settlements the highest since May 1. NYMEX August RBOB futures added $0.0531 for a $2.6227 gallon settlement, and August ULSD futures gained $0.0305 to $2.5837 gallon. Also on Tuesday, oil traders positioned ahead of the weekly release of the U.S. inventory report from the American Petroleum Institute at 4:30 PM ET, followed by official government data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration Wednesday morning. U.S. commercial crude oil stockpiles are projected to have declined by 100,000 bbl for the week ended July 7, which would mark the fourth consecutive weekly drawdown in commercial stockpiles. Since mid-June, commercial stockpiles fell by a combined 14.9 million bbl to a better-than-five-month low 452.182 million bbl.
Oil Steadies Near 3-Month High Ahead of EIA Inventory Report -- Oil futures nearest delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent crude on the Intercontinental Exchange traded little changed early Wednesday as investor sentiment turned cautious ahead of the release of the inventory report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and update on inflation levels last month, with consensus calling for further easing of consumer prices amid a cooling economy. Economists forecast headline inflation in the United States continued to decelerate in June, dropping from 4% year-over-year in May to 3.1%, led by a retreat in energy and food prices. The core consumer price index, which excludes energy and food prices, is also seen to have retreated to 5% from a decades-high 6.4%, led by a gradual but slow easing of housing prices. Some caution, however, that although inflation in the goods sector remains subdued and housing likely saw further deceleration of prices, the Fed needs to see more of a slowdown in core services ex-housing to be confident that headline inflation is headed to the 2% target. The combination of easing inflation and a softening labor market might suggest that the Fed's efforts to cool the economy with the most aggressive rate hiking campaign in decades is finally bearing results. As of Wednesday morning, a majority of investors still expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates by 0.25% on July 26 to a 5.25% by 5.5% target range. However, bets for further rate hikes in September and November are quickly fading. Oil is bought and sold around the world in U.S. dollars, therefore a cheaper greenback makes crude more attractive for foreign buyers. Near 7:30 a.m. ET, NYMEX August West Texas Intermediate was little changed near a three-month high $74.88 bbl and the international crude benchmark September Brent contract slipped to $79.39 bbl. NYMEX August RBOB futures traded also flat near $2.6220 gallon, and August ULSD futures edged higher to $2.5877 gallon, up by $0.0040 in overnight trading.
WTI Holds Gains Despite Large Crude Build; Biden Admin Drains SPR For 15th Straight Week - Oil prices extended gains overnight with Brent at its highest since April and WTI testing $76, breaking out of its two month range.Prices have climbed since OPEC+ heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Russia pledged even more output reductions in an effort to rebalance the market. Strong Russian supply - despite sanctions due to the war in Ukraine - has been a headwind for the market.Those flows are now showing signs of dropping, with average shipments falling below February averages. Additionally, the global market is expected to tighten in the second half and stockpiles are forecast to draw through 2024, according to a report by the Energy Information Administration, which is due to release its weekly inventory figures later Wednesday.Finally, this morning's cooler-than-expected CPI offers hope for a less tight Fed and less drag on demand for the energy complex.All that being said, last night's unexpected crude (and product) build, reported by API, is not what the bulls want to see continuing.API
- Crude +3.026mm (-1.00mm exp)
- Cushing -2.15mm - biggest draw since May 2022
- Gasoline +1.00mm (-1.1mm exp)
- Distillates +2.908mm (+150k exp)
DOE
- Crude +5.946mm (-1.00mm exp)
- Cushing -1.605mm
- Gasoline -4k (-1.1mm exp)
- Distillates +4.815mm (+150k exp)
The official data confirmed API's with large crude and Distillates builds and a significant draw at the Cushing Hub... Graphs Source: BloombergFor the 15th week in a row, the Biden admin drained the SPR (401k barrels)... Bear in mind, the magic that is the 'adjustment factor; suddenly re-emerged (as prices ready to break out?)...US Crude production slipped marginally off cycle highs as the rig count plunges... Gasoline demand pulled back hard from the previous week’s 19-month high -- retailers are likely still working down the gallons they bought ahead of the July 4th travel weekend. The four-week average slipped, but remains 6% above the same time last year, which was when consumers began to hold back at the pump after retail prices hit record highs.WTI was hovering around $76 ahead of the official print, having broken above the Saudi-cut highs...
U.S. Inflation Data Suggested that Inflation Was Slowing Enough to Allow the Federal Reserve to Stop Tightening U.S. Monetary Policy - On Wednesday, the oil market was well supported after U.S. inflation data suggested that inflation was slowing enough to allow the Federal Reserve to stop tightening U.S. monetary policy. The Consumer Price Index report showed U.S. consumer prices, excluding food and energy, in June increased by 0.2% on the month, the smallest increase since August 2021. The WTI market breached the $76 level and the Brent market traded over the $80 level for the first time since May following the report. The oil market retraced some of its gains following the release of the EIA weekly petroleum stocks report, which showed a larger than expected build in crude stocks of over 5 million barrels and a larger than expected build in distillates stocks of over 4.8 million barrels. However, the crude market later continued on its upward trend, trading to a high of $76.15 by mid-day. The market later settled in a sideways trading range ahead of the close. The August WTI contract settled up 92 cents at $75.75 and the September Brent contract settled up 71 cents at $80.11. The product markets ended higher, with the heating oil market settling up 1.59 cents at $2.5996 and the RB market settling up 4.43 cents at $2.6670.The EIA reported that net input of crude oil by U.S. refineries increased to 16.7 million barrels last week, its highest level since June 2022. U.S. West Coast refinery utilization increased to 96.7%, the highest level since September 2018, while utilization by Midwest refineries increased to 98.6%, the highest level in two years.IIR Energy reported that U.S. oil refiners are expected to shut in about 408,000 bpd of capacity in the week ending July 14th, increasing available refining capacity by 82,000 bpd. Offline capacity is expected to fall to 272,000 bpd in the week ending July 21st.Colonial Pipeline Co is allocating space for Cycle 41 shipments on Line 20, which carries distillates from Atlanta, Georgia to Nashville, Tennessee.U.S. consumer prices increased modestly in June and posted their smallest annual increase in more than two years as inflation continued to subside. The U.S. Labor Department said the CPI gained 0.2% in June after increasing 0.1% in May. The CPI was lifted by rises in gasoline prices as well as rents, which offset a decrease in the price of used motor vehicles. In the 12 months through June, the CPI increased 3.0%. That was the smallest year-on-year increase since March 2021 and followed a 4.0% rise in May. Excluding the food and energy categories, the CPI increased 0.2% in June. It was the first time in six months that the core CPI did not post monthly gains of at least 0.4%. In the 12 months through June, the core CPI increased 4.8% after increasing 5.3% in May. Traders said inflation is slowing fast enough to allow the Federal Reserve to stop tightening U.S. monetary policy after what is still widely expected to be an interest rate increase at its meeting in two weeks’ time. The contract pricing still shows traders expect the policy rate to increase a quarter point to a 5.25%-5.5% range at the Fed’s July 25th-26th meeting but now see about a 25% chance of another rate increase before year’s end, down from about 35% before the report.The Fed Beige Book released today noted that overall economic activity in the U.S. increased slightly since late May and overall economic expectations for the coming months generally continued to call for slow growth. It noted that its survey found wage increases were returning to or nearing pre-pandemic levels and market expectations for price increases were generally stable or lower over the next several months.
OPEC+ Gets Glimmers Of Hope As Oil Passes $80 --After months of fruitlessly toiling to bolster global oil markets, OPEC+ is finally seeing some glimmers of hope as Brent prices near $80 a barrel in London. Whether they last is another question. Oil-market intervention by Saudi Arabia and its partners this year has largely been met with indifference by traders: crude prices have sagged even as the cartel repeatedly slashes production, and even an extra 1 million barrel-a-day cut by the kingdom elicited little more than a shrug. The situation appears to be changing, as Brent futures approach $80 for the first time since May. The US government’s Energy Information Administration has now flipped its outlook for 2023 as a whole from a surplus to a deficit. The crossover may have taken place as far back as early June, according to consultants FGE. The supply shortfall will more than double in the coming months, draining global oil inventories by a hefty 2.8 million barrels a day in August, Standard Chartered estimates. The supply shortfall will more than double in the coming months, draining global oil inventories by a hefty 2.8 million barrels a day in August, Standard Chartered estimates. In the physical market, there are clear signs that the OPEC+ curbs are starting to bite, as price differentials climb for crude grades similar to those shipped by the Saudis. Meanwhile, the Brent forward curve has returned to displaying a premium for immediate deliveries after flirting with a discount weeks ago, a symptom of renewed tightness. OPEC is even getting more co-operation from its partner, Russia, which has frustrated the group with its reluctance to implement its agreed share of output cutbacks. Moscow has seemed intent on maximizing sales to fund its war against Ukraine, but tanker tracking shows the country pared exports by roughly 25% in the four weeks to July 9. But it’s still too early for OPEC+ to celebrate. Even at $80 a barrel, prices are far below the $100-mark that Bloomberg Economics estimates the Saudis might need to cover government spending. Supplies in many corners of the market remain plentiful, and continue to rise from OPEC+ nations like Venezuela and the kingdom’s adversary, Iran. Parts of Wall Street continue to sour on crude, with JPMorgan contending that OPEC+ needs to slash output by a further 700,000 barrels a day to regain market control. World markets will be inundated again with renewed oversupply in early 2024, Morgan Stanley warns. To be sure, rising US interest rates have posed a severe headwind for prices this year, and if crude buckles in the face of the latest weaker inflation data, its prospects for a sustained move higher will look doubtful
Oil rises above $80 per barrel for first time since April as IEA predicts record demand --Oil prices are hovering above $80 per barrel for the first time since April, with the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicting demand will reach a record high and outstrip supply for the rest of the year in its latest market report.The Paris-based climate agency anticipates a resurgent China will make up more than two-thirds of this year’s demand growth as it finally recovers from the pandemic, boosting demand.It predicts oil demand will reach a record 102.1m barrels per day (bpd) and also raised expectations for next year despite the growing embrace of electric vehicles and energy efficiency measures across developed economies.Meanwhile oil demand growth will still halve next year to 1.1m bpd, the IEA revealed, reflecting vehicle electrification and energy efficiency, though it raised its view from a 860,000 bpd rise it forecast last month.“World oil demand is coming under pressure from the challenging economic environment, not least because of the dramatic tightening of monetary policy in many advanced and developing countries,” the IEA said in its monthly oil report.Brent Crude was up 0.27 per cent at $80.33 per barrel in this morning’s trading, while WTI Crude had risen 0.12 per cent at $75.84 per barrel.Meanwhile, encouraging inflation data from the US indicated interest rates in the world’s largest economy were finally reaching a peak.This follows only a modest rise in consumer prices rose last month in the US, with the 0.2 per cent rise in June taking annual price hikes to three per cent – the smallest rise since 2021 as inflation continued to ease.There are now expectations of just one more rate hike from the US Federal Reserve, which has increased rates 10 times since last March, with interest rates currently at 5 to 5.25 per cent.Higher rates are a tool to tame inflation, but typically lead to slow economic growth and reduce oil demand.The return of prices above $80 per barrel will be a relief for OPEC, the world’s most influential oil cartel, which has gambled on improving economic conditions to boost prices after slashing supplies by nearly 5m barrels per day.Indications markets could be tightening, in line with its forecasts, include a $2.64 per barrel premium on six month future contracts to February 2024, having previously traded at a discount.The futures contract structure of the global benchmark Brent indicates the market is tightening and that OPEC could be succeeding in its mission to support the market.However, economic challenges remain that could weigh down prices, as Europe remains subdued amid manufacturing slumps, while OECD developed countries on the continent are on course to register four consecutive quarters of contracting demand up to the final quarter of 2023.“China’s widely anticipated reopening has so far failed to extend beyond travel and services, with its economic recovery losing steam after the bounce earlier in the year,” the IEA said.The IEA has also lowered its forecast for growth of the first time this year, by 220,000 barrels per day to 2.2m, meaning record demand would be slightly less than previously anticipated.
Brent Futures Top $81 on USD Selloff, Tighter OPEC+ Supply -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures and Brent crude traded on the Intercontinental Exchange advanced for the third consecutive session on Thursday, sending the international price benchmark above $81 bbl after International Energy Agency and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries forecasted a widening supply deficit on the global oil market in the second half of the year, while an ongoing selloff in the dollar index triggered by a softer inflation print in the United States further boosted the oil complex. U.S. dollar index hit a new 15-month low of 99.425 against a basket of foreign currencies Thursday, extending losses for a sixth consecutive session after the Producer Price Index released Thursday morning offered fresh evidence of easing inflation. PPI, a measure of inflation at the wholesale level, rose at the slowest pace since August 2020, gaining a mere 0.1% in the 12 months ending in June. Figures for May were also revised lower to show the index falling to a negative 0.4% instead of the previously reported 0.3%. PPI measures price changes for produced goods at the factory gate before they reach consumers and therefore are often seen as an early indicator of inflation reflected in the Consumer Price Index. Earlier this week, investors got a glimpse of inflation at the consumer level, with the CPI falling for a 12th consecutive month in June to the lowest level in over two years. What's more, core consumer prices, excluding energy and food prices, fell below a 5% annualized rate for the first time since December 2021, suggesting the disinflationary trend that first started in the goods-producing sectors of the economy has now spread into labor-intensive services. This matters greatly for the Federal Reserve that has stressed the importance of disinflation to take hold in the services sector before the central bank would pause its aggressive rate-hiking campaign. As of Thursday afternoon, 92.4% of investors still expect the Federal Reserve to raise rates by another 25 basis points during the July 26 meeting to a 5.25% by 5.5% target range. However, prospects for further rate increases are now less certain, undermining bullish bets for the U.S. dollar. . On the session, NYMEX August West Texas Intermediate advanced $1.14 to $76.89 bbl and the September Brent contract rallied $1.25 to $81.36 bbl. NYMEX August RBOB futures gained $0.0116 to $2.6786 gallon, and August ULSD futures moved $0.0108 higher to $2.6104 gallon. Also on Thursday, IEA and OPEC released their monthly market reports with both the Pairs-based agency and cartel forecasting a widening supply deficit on the global market despite taking a somewhat different view on demand outlook. IEA in its report downgraded its worldwide oil consumption projection by 220,000 bpd this year to 102.1 million bpd, which is still a record high. In contrast, OPEC revised projected 2023 demand up by about 100,000 bpd from last month's assessment to 102 million bpd, mainly due to higher demand estimated in China for the second quarter. IEA, meanwhile, revised China's demand growth lower.
Oil On Track For Third Weekly Gain Amid Supply Concerns -- Oil prices were little changed on Friday, but were on track for a third weekly gain, drawing support from tighter supply amid issues in Libya and Nigeria and signs of easing U.S. inflation. Benchmark Brent crude futures were virtually unchanged at $81.36 a barrel, while WTI crude futures were down marginally at $76.86. The oil market is expected to be very tight due to declining Russian crude exports and supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria. Production at Libya's El Feel, Sharara and 108 oilfields was shut on Thursday in a protest by a local tribe against a kidnapping of a former minister. Separately, Shell has suspended loadings of Nigeria's Forcados crude oil due to a potential leak at a terminal, Reuters said citing a spokesperson for its local subsidiary, SPDC. Protests in Libya alone could take away more than 250,000 barrels of oil per day from the market, according to ANZ Research. Meanwhile, traders remain hopeful of higher demand for crude due to easing worries about inflation and interest-rate hikes in the U.S. Weaker-than-expected U.S. consumer price inflation and producer price inflation data released earlier this week spurred hopes that interest rates in the U.S. are very near their peak.
Oil Fades from 3-Month High on Profit-taking as USD Rebounds -- New York Mercantile Exchange oil futures and Brent crude traded on the Intercontinental Exchange retreated on Friday pressured by a rebounding U.S. dollar, while all petroleum contracts registered weekly gains amid an improving inflation outlook in the United States and supply disruption in Libya, a major oil producer in northern Africa, where violent protests shut down three of the country's largest oil fields. Investors continue to monitor an evolving situation in Libya amid a sudden escalation of conflict between tribal forces in Benghazi and the United Nations-backed government in Tripoli. Protestors in the southern regions of Libya began shutting down major oil fields on Thursday after an arrest of a former finance minister, Faraj Bumatari, by government forces. "We affirm the continuation of the oil closures, and we may escalate the situation to more than that if our son, Faraj Bumatari, is not released," stated protesters in a released video on social media. The government in Tripoli is yet to comment on the developing situation. As of Friday afternoon, El Feel, Sharara and Waha oil fields remain closed with a combined production of more than 500,000 bpd or 0.5% of global oil supplies currently offline. Before the disruption, Waha and Sharara oil fields produced roughly similar amounts of oil, averaging between 250,000 and 290,000 barrels daily. Most of the oil produced at these two fields has been exported to southwestern Europe, including Spain, Italy, and France. The disruption in Libya comes as major forecasting agencies, including the International Energy Agency and Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, said the global oil market is likely to fall into deeper deficit in the second half of the year. A combination of fewer supplies available from Russia and Saudi Arabia, two of the world's largest oil producers, along with demand gains in the United States and China will result in a 2 million bpd global shortfall between production and demand during the fourth quarter. OPEC in its Monthly Oil Market Report estimated Russian oil production will drop by a staggering 1.28 million bpd from the second quarter to 9.55 million bpd for the third quarter. That would be 750,000 bpd below the 2022 output rate. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia said it would cut oil production to a multidecade low 9 million bpd in July and August as a unilateral 1 million bpd production cut takes effect. Underlying gains in the oil complex this week is an improving inflation outlook in the United States where the labor market along with consumer prices showed signs of easing. The U.S. Producer Price Index, which measures inflation at the wholesale level, offered fresh evidence on Thursday that inflation is easing across the U.S. economy. PPI last month rose at the slowest pace since August 2020, gaining a mere 0.1% in the 12 months ending in June. Offering further evidence of retreating inflation, the U.S. consumer sentiment index jumped this month to the highest level in nearly three years, according to the bimonthly report released Friday morning by the University of Michigan. All components of the index increased considerably, led by a 19% surge in long-term business conditions and 16% increase in short-run business conditions. "Overall, sentiment climbed for all demographic groups except for lower-income consumers. The sharp rise in sentiment was largely attributable to the continued slowdown in inflation along with stability in labor markets," said Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu. Following the data's release, the U.S. dollar index firmed 0.15% against a basket of foreign currencies to 99.605. Front-month West Texas Intermediate on NYMEX fell $1.47 to $75.42 bbl, and ICE September Brent contract fell $1.49 to $79.87 bbl. NYMEX August RBOB futures declined $0.0349 to $2.6437 gallon, and August ULSD futures eased to $2.5979 gallon, down $0.0125 on the session.
Oil settles on 3rd straight weekly gain after hitting 3-month high; check key triggers for crude next week Even after falling more than a dollar a barrel in the previous session, crude oil benchmarks recorded their their-straight weekly gain as the dollar strengthened and oil traders booked profits from a strong rally fueled by softer US inflation. Last week, oil had been on a record-gaining streak with prices hitting nearly three-month highs with global oil benchmark Brent hovering above $80 per barrel-mark after US inflation data implied rate-hike cycle could be nearing an end in the world's biggest economy.Brent crude futures settled at $79.87 per barrel, down $1.49, or 1.8 per cent on July 14, while the US West Texas Intermediate crude futures fell $1.47, or 1.9 per cent, to settle at $75.42 a barrel. The futures contract structure of the global benchmark Brent indicates the market is tightening and that the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+) could be succeeding in its aim to support the market. Back home, on the Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX), crude oil futures due for a July 19 expiry, settled lower by 0.67 per cent at ₹6,204 per bbl, having swung between ₹6,175 and ₹6,321 per bbl during the session so far, compared to their previous close of ₹6,246 per bbl. US dollar, supply cuts by producers: Key factors driving crude oil:
- -The US dollar index edged higher after hitting a 15-month low during the session, as investors consolidated ahead of the weekend. A stronger greenback reduces oil demand, making crude more expensive for investors holding other currencies.
- -Oil prices gained nearly two per cent on a weekly basis, after supply disruptions in Libya and Nigeria heightened concerns that the markets will tighten in coming months. Several oilfields in Libya were shut down because of a local tribe's protest against the kidnapping of a former minister. Separately, Shell suspended loadings of Nigeria's Forcados crude oil owing to a potential leak at a terminal.
- -The Libya disruption is halting an estimated 370,000 barrels per day (bpd) while the loss from the Nigerian outage is pegged at 225,000 bpd, PVM analyst John Evans told Reuters.
- -Russian oil exports have also decreased significantly and, if this trend continues next week, it would probably drive prices up further since Russian oil exports are set to be reduced by 500,000 bpd in August, according to Commerzbank analysts.
- -Oil prices have now rallied by around 12 per cent in two weeks, primarily in response to supply cuts from top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia. Top producer Saudi Arabia had pledged to extend a production cut of 1 million bpd in August.
- -Official data released last week showed US consumer prices rose modestly in June and registered their smallest annual increase in more than two years as inflation continued to subside. Easing inflation in US provided a boost to prices as it lowered rate-hike concerns on markets.
- -‘’Next week, the rally could resume as easing inflation, plans to refill the U.S. strategic reserve, supply cuts and disruptions could support the market, Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at US Bank Wealth Management told news agency Reuters. “While oil prices are likely slightly overbought in the very near term, touching the highest levels since early May, the bias appears to be for a grind higher," he added.
US Claims Drone Strike Killed ISIS Leader in Eastern Syria - US Central Command on Sunday said that it killed an ISIS “leader” in a drone strike in eastern Syria that it launched on July 7 and suggested that a civilian may have also been injured in the bombing.“On July 7, US Central Command conducted a strike in Syria that resulted in the death of Usamah al-Muhajir, an ISIS leader in eastern Syria,” CENTCOM said in a press release.The press release said there were no “indications” that civilians were killed in the strike but that CENTCOM was “assessing reports of a civilian injury.” A recent CENTCOM drone strike launched on May 3 killed a civilian in northwest Syria.CENTCOM has been accusing Russia of “harassing” its drones over Syria and said the MQ-9 Reaper drone that launched the July 7 strike was “the same MQ-9s that had, earlier in the day, been harassed by Russian aircraft in an encounter that had lasted almost two hours.”Russia is an ally of the Syrian government based in Damascus, which opposes the US occupation of eastern Syria. Damascus and its allies are all sworn enemies of ISIS and would continue fighting the terrorist group if the US pulled out of Syria.
US Launches Series of Airstrikes in Somalia - US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said Sunday that it launched three airstrikes in Somalia and claimed the bombardment killed 10 al-Shabaab fighters.The command said the strikes were launched in a remote area about 65 miles north of Kismaayo, a port city in southern Somalia. AFRICOM said the strikes were conducted to support Somali government forces who were fighting al-Shabaab on the ground.AFRICOM claimed that its “initial assessment” found no civilians were harmed, although the Pentagon is notorious for undercounting civilian casualties, especially in Somalia, where US operations are shrouded in secrecy.The incident was the first airstrike AFRICOM reported in Somalia since one launched on June 1. However, it’s not clear if the command is reporting every US airstrike in the country. According to the monitoring group Airwars, suspected US airstrikes hit al-Shabaab fighters in Somalia on June 11 and June 16.The US escalated airstrikes in Somalia after President Biden ordered the deployment of up to 500 troops to the country in May 2022. The US-backed Mogadishu-based government launched an offensive against al-Shabaab in September of last year, leading to heavy fighting on the ground and more US airstrikes.
Russia Says Putin Met With Prigozhin After His Mutiny - A Kremlin spokesman said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin after his short-lived mutiny.Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting took place on June 29 at the Kremlin and lasted three hours. The talks were held just a few days after Prigozhin’s 24-hour rebellion, which started on June 23 and ended on June 24.“[Putin] invited 35 people — all the squad commanders and the leadership of the [Wagner private military] company, including Prigozhin,” Peskov said, according to TASS. “The meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29 and lasted for nearly three hours.”Peskov said that Putin listened to explanations from the Wagner commanders and “offered them further options for employment and further use in combat.” Peskov said he couldn’t share much detail about the meeting but added that Prigozhin and other Wagner commanders pledged their loyalty to Russia.“The commanders themselves shared their version of what happened, they emphasized that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the supreme commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue fighting for the Fatherland,” he said.When the mutiny first ended, according to media reports, Prigozhin agreed to live in exile in Belarus in exchange for having charges against him dropped. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko confirmed on June 27 that Prigozhin traveled to Belarus but recently said the mercenary chief was in Russia.In a speech delivered on June 26, Putin vowed to uphold the commitment he made to Wagner fighters to end the mutiny, which involved three options: sign contracts with the Russian Defense Ministry, go to Belarus, or go home to their families. At this point, it’s unclear what the fate of most Wagner fighters will be or what role Prigozhin will fill in the future..
Russian mercenary leader Prigozhin’s commanders met Putin after short-lived mutiny, pledged loyalty - Just five days after staging a short-lived rebellion, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin ‘s commanders met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and pledged loyalty to the government, a senior government spokesman said Monday, the latest twist in a baffling episode that has raised questions about the power and influence both men wield. The three-hour meeting took place June 29 and involved not only Prigozhin but commanders from his Wagner Group military contractor, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin gave an assessment of Wagner’s actions on the battlefield in Ukraine — where the mercenaries have fought alongside Russian troops — and of the revolt itself. “The commanders themselves presented their version of what happened. They underscored that they are staunch supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief, and also said that they are ready to continue to fight for their homeland,” Peskov said. The confirmation that Putin met face-to-face with Prigozhin, who led troops on a march to Moscow last month to demand a military leadership change, was extraordinary. Though the Russian leader branded Prigozhin a traitor as the revolt unfolded and vowed harsh punishment, the criminal case against the mercenary chief on rebellion charges was later dropped.
Putin met with Prigozhin and Wagner commanders days after insurrection - On Monday, on the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius which is set to discuss a significant escalation of NATO’s direct involvement in the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin confirmed that Russian President Vladimir Putin had met with Evgeny Prigozhin on June 29, just five days after Prigozhin’s failed coup attempt. The news of the meeting had first been reported on Friday by the French newspaper Libération. After months of open conflicts with the Russian army leadership, Prigozhin, a far-right ex-convict-turned-billionaire and mercenary leader, launched his insurrection on June 23 with a direct appeal to pro-NATO sections within the Russian oligarchy and state apparatus. Having seized control of the main military headquarters in charge of the war in Ukraine, Prigozhin began a march on Moscow on June 24, demanding that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief-of-Staff Valery Gerasimov be removed from their positions. According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, Putin invited 35 people to a meeting just five days after the insurrection collapsed, including all leading commanders of Wagner. Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence, and Viktor Zolotov, the head of the Russian National Guard, which was deployed against the insurrectionists, also participated in the meeting. Peskov revealed very little about the contents of the meeting but clearly indicated that a settlement had been reached between Putin and the commanders of Wagner: “The only thing we can say is that the President gave an assessment of the actions of the [Wagner] company at the front during the SVO [Special Military Operation], and also gave his assessment of the events of June 24. The commanders themselves provided their interpretation of events. They emphasized that they are convinced supporters and soldiers of the head of state and the commander-in-chief [Putin]. They also said that they are prepared to continue to fight for the Motherland.” The meeting took place just two days after Putin denounced the insurrectionists as traitors on public television, accusing them of fomenting civil war and playing into the hands of NATO. In the two weeks that have followed the coup attempt, the Kremlin’s official line has been marked, despite many countless twists and turns, by an extraordinary degree of leniency toward Wagner. In the immediate wake of the coup, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in language commonly used by mafiosi, boasted of having brokered a deal between Putin and Prigozhin during the insurrection. The deal reportedly involved not only an amnesty for Prigozhin and all Wagner fighters but also their relocation to Belarus. That relocation, however, has not happened. Prigozhin is still predominantly based in Russia, with the Kremlin stating last week that they had neither “the ability nor the willingness” to track his whereabouts. Lukashenko, after declaring that the Belarusian army would be happy to be trained by Wagner, invited reporters from the New York Times last week to the camps designed for Wagner to demonstrate to the pro-NATO media that they were not there.Wagner is reportedly also freely continuing to recruit across the country. A raid on Prigozhin’s home was followed almost immediately by the return of his valuables, including his private firearms. The Financial Times tracked the movement of Prigozhin’s private jet and found that he had flown back and forth between Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov on Don (where the insurrection started) and Minsk, in Belarus, multiple times in the days following the failed coup.
British Defense Minister Says Ukraine Needs to Show More Gratitude - British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said Wednesday that Ukraine needs to show more gratitude for the support it receives from the West when asked about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s criticism of NATO’s communiqué.“Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” Wallace told reporters. A day earlier, Zelensky wrote on Twitter that it was “absurd” that Ukraine was not given an invitation to join NATO or a timeline on when membership might happen. Wallace said Ukraine had a habit of being ungrateful and treating its NATO backers like an Amazon warehouse. “I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list, that I’m not like Amazon,” Wallace told reporters on the sidelines of the second day of NATO’s Vilnius summit.US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made similar comments in response to a question from a Ukrainian activist who suggested the US wanted to see Ukraine lose because Kyiv was not invited to join NATO. “The United States of America has stepped up to provide an enormous amount of capacity,” Sullivan said.“I think the American people do deserve a degree of gratitude from the United States government for their willingness to step up and from the rest of the world as well,” Sullivan added.Sullivan’s comments were likely a message to Zelensky, as The Washington Post reported that the US delegation in Vilnius was “furious” over the Ukrainian leader’s tweet. On the second day of the summit, Zelensky toned down the rhetoric and thanked the US for support after a meeting with President Biden.
UN warns its development goals for 2030 are in trouble and 575 million people will remain very poor (AP) — In a grim report, the U.N. warned Monday that at the current rate of global progress 575 million people will still be living in extreme poverty and 84 million children won’t be going to school in 2030 – and it will take 286 years to reach equality between men and women.The report on progress in achieving 17 wide-ranging U.N. goals adopted by world leaders in 2015 to improve life for the world’s more than 7 billion people said that only 15% of some 140 specific targets that experts evaluated are on track to be reached by the end of the decade.Close to half the targets are moderately or severely off track, it said, and of those 30% have either seen no movement at all or regressed including key targets on poverty, hunger and climate.The ambitious goals for 2030 include ensuring that hunger is eradicated and nobody lives on less than $2.15 a day which is the extreme poverty line, providing every child with a quality primary and secondary school education, achieving gender equality, ensuring all people have clean water, sanitation and access to affordable energy, reducing inequalities, and taking urgent action to combat climate change.“Unless we act now, the 2030 agenda could become an epitaph for a world that might have been,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a foreword to the report. “Failure to make progress means inequalities will continue to deepen, increasing the risk of a fragmented, two-speed world.”
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